Royal Hallamshire Hospital kick-starts teenage cancer unit campaign with donation from lawyers
Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital has launched a campaign to raise £50,000 to open a state-of-the-art teenage and young adult cancer unit, starting with a donation of almost £20,000 from national law firm Nabarro.The money kick-starts the hospital’s fund-raising campaign, in conjunction with the Teenage Cancer Trust, to open fully-refurbished specialist beds for teenagers and young adults, mostly with cancer affecting the blood or bone marrow.
Martin Salt, lead cancer nurse at Hallamshire Hospital, says: “This will be a four-bed unit fully fitted-out to offer teenagers and young adults facilities to make their stay with us easier and less stressful.
“As well as offering leading edge treatment and care, the ward will have chill-out rooms, DVD players, wide-screen TV and access to a computer.
“The donation from Nabarro is the ideal foundation for our campaign to raise over £50,000 to enable us to open a fully-refurbished ward area.”
Nabarro partner Carl Dray heads the Sheffield office's charity team. He says: “We have worked very hard over the last few months to raise a substantial amount to start the new ward’s fund-raising campaign.
“Colleagues have walked on fire, run races, held a gala ball and hosted a whole range of other events, all with the aim of helping get the teenage and young adult cancer ward area established.
“We have a long-standing relationship with the Teenage Cancer Trust and through them we have become a main sponsor of the Royal Hallamshire project.
“Nabarro is committed to raising at least £30,000 for the ward, so with today’s cheque for £19,800.26 we are two thirds of the way there and we hope other organisations and companies will follow our example by raising money for this essential cause.”
Mrs Clare Shepherd, whose daughter Samantha inspired the creation of the ward during her own illness, says: “Samantha was diagnosed with leukaemia age 19, and sadly lost her fight just before her 21st birthday.
“The Teenage/Young Adults unit was set up after Sam spoke with her consultant about the lack of provision for young adults on the unit. Young blood disorder patients were not able to use the Teenage Cancer Trust ward at Weston Park due to the nature of blood disorder cancers.”
