SOME of the work funded by the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation has been visited by his family ahead of World Cancer Day tomorrow (Thursday, February 4).

Lady Elsie and their sons, Andrew and Mark, were recently the Northern Centre for Cancer Care at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital, to learn more about the progress being made.

They saw the tracer production unit and stereotactic radiotherapy unit, which have been funded with the part of the £9m raised by the charity set up by the former England and Newcastle football manager.

Mark Robson said: “We receive regular updates about everything the foundation funds and it also means a lot to us to hear at first hand what’s happening.

“The charity contributed a total of almost £3m to help fund these three projects alone, which is a tremendous amount of money by anybody’s standards.

“Particularly when you think of the amount of effort it took our supporters to raise the money and the generosity of the people who helped them.

“It’s a pleasure and a privilege to discuss the work we’ve been able to help fund with such dedicated hospital and research staff.”

The Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre was opened by Sir Bobby in February 2009, almost a year after he launched the charity.

The foundation works with the NHS, Newcastle University and other cancer charities to support the Centre.

It offers patients from across the North-East and Cumbria access to early drug trials and potential new treatments, and works closely with the Imaging Research Centre to improve diagnosis and study the effects of new drugs.

Often these are ‘first in human’ trials and the Sir Bobby Centre’s dedicated staff also coordinate trials of drugs at later stages of development, working with the National Cancer Networks to ensure patients get offered the best options for treatment.

Mark Robson added: “We’ve also been lucky to meet some of the patients who are benefitting from the work.

“It’s never easy talking to people about cancer but it does provide my family with a sense that Dad’s charity is doing something very important.

“He would be incredibly proud to see how well the foundation is doing and what we’re able to do for people with cancer as a result.”