AN ambitious fundraising campaign has been launched to create a specialist children’s cancer research facility in the North-East.
The Future Fund aims to raise £5.5m to establish the Newcastle University Centre for Childhood Cancer.
The project is a collaboration between the university, the North of England Children’s Cancer Research (NECCR) charity and the Great North Children’s Hospital (GNCH) – home to one of the UK’s leading centres for paediatric oncology.
The centre will provide state-of-the-art resources to enable world-leading academics and clinicians to advance and accelerate the children’s cancer research and treatment that has already earned them international recognition.
Professor Josef Vormoor, Director of the Northern Institute for Cancer Research at Newcastle University (NICR) and Honorary Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at the GNCH, said: “Childhood cancer has been one of the success stories of modern medicine. Such have been the advances made over the past 30 years that eight out of 10 children diagnosed today will be cured. However, cancer in children and young people still remains a serious challenge.
“We lack efficient therapies for some children who present with advanced stages of disease or for those whose cancer has come back.
“Even for survivors, the treatment can come with quite a heavy burden as two out of three survivors are left with chronic health problems associated with side effects.”
Professor Chris Day, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University, said: “The NICR is already the leading centre for research into childhood cancer in the UK and it is poised to become one of the major centres for paediatric oncology research in Europe.
“Creating the advanced laboratories needed for our world-class research will enable us to build on our strong track record and achieve our goal of changing the lives of more children.
“With the fantastic support of our partners and the public, Newcastle University will continue to develop as a centre for research in this vital area. ”
For more information or to donate online visit www.futurefund.co.uk, or telephone 0191-208 7250. Support the fund on Facebook /futurefundnewcastle, on Twitter @FutureFundNCL and use the hashtag #NCLFF
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