FOURTEEN years have passed since she was told she had breast cancer and needed an urgent operation, but the memory of hearing the dreaded “c-word” still brings tears to Pat Chambers’ eyes.

She had felt a lump, ignored it at first, but then went to see her GP who insisted she had to get it checked. Two days later, she had an appointment with a consultant and, within a week, she was having a lumpectomy.

“No one can ever prepare you for that moment when they tell you “it’s cancer”,” she recalls. “The world becomes a blur and you stop listening because there are so many thoughts flooding through your head.”

For Pat, a single mum, her thoughts immediately turned to her two children. Her son Andrew was grown-up and working at the time but daughter Elish was only seven, and the questions rushed in: What’s going to happen to them? Will I see Elish grow-up. Will I see her graduate? Will I ever see my grandchildren?

Mercifully, Pat was one of the lucky ones because her cancer was caught early. She underwent surgery in 2005 and is now the proud, doting grandma of Emily, six, and one-year-old Jamie.

But being touched by cancer, together with a wealth of experience in the fundraising sector, makes Pat the perfect choice to manage a £1m appeal by the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust Charity to establish a centre of excellence in cancer care.

At the start of this week, The Northern Echo threw its considerable weight behind the “Excellence In Cancer Care” appeal to mark 150 years of campaigning journalism in the North-East.  The aim is to transform the cramped facilities at the chemotherapy day unit at the University of North Durham, where cancer patients from throughout the county often begin their treatment. Ideas for improvements by next summer include new consultation rooms to provide greater privacy, 14 treatments rooms, and an open-plan waiting room leading to a garden.

Due to the growing financial burden on the NHS, and an increasing number of cancer patients, the current facilities are no longer fit for purpose, with not enough space for a dedicated team of nurses to do their difficult jobs properly. The positive news is that more people than ever before are overcoming cancer, with County Durham and Darlington having some of the best survival rates in the country. But, despite excellent care from staff, changes are needed to give patients more privacy and dignity at the most traumatic time of their lives.

“Going through a cancer diagnosis and treatment makes the reality dawn and you realise how important it is to give people the space they need to come to terms with what they are being told,” says Pat.

The NHS trust’s charity was launched in March 1996 when various charities operating at hospitals in Darlington, Bishop Auckland and Durham were brought together under one banner. The charity’s latest successful mission was to raise £750,000 to buy state-of-the-art scanners for Darlington Memorial Hospital and Bishop Auckland General Hospital. Now, the focus has turned to the urgent changes needed at the chemotherapy unit.

Pat took over as the charity’s manager in June 2017, having previously worked for the Teesside-based Daisy Chain Project, supporting people with autism, and then Age UK, where many will remember her for organising a spectacular bid at Saltburn to break the record for the world’s largest waltz. In dismal weather, the record wasn’t broken but 731 turned out for a day they’ll never forget, and valuable funds were raised.

As well as managing the NHS trust’s charity, Pat is also chair of the Five Lamps organisation that campaigns for financial and social inclusion and promotes ethical lending. Formidable but friendly, she has a well-earned reputation for galvanising public support for good causes.

Pat’s latest challenge is certainly a good cause and she is determined the campaign will be a success. “In this part of the country, we are seeing some of the highest rates of new cancer cases in the UK and continuous growth in the four main cancer groups – prostate, bowel, lung and breast,” she says. “The reality is that all of us will be touched by cancer in some way during our lifetimes so it’s vital that we raise this money.”

She goes on to reveal that her sister, Mo, died of a brain tumour in 2007, her other sister, Sandy, is being treated for skin cancer, and their mum survived cancer twice. She knows all too well what a cancer diagnosis means - and why it’s so important to care for patients in the right environment.

Fourteen years on from being given the news she dreaded, Pat Chambers sums it up with the words: “We really are all in this together.”

•             HOW YOU CAN HELP

•             Donate via: www.justgiving.com/cddft

•             Call: 01325 743781

•             Email Pat Chambers at: pat.chambers1@nhs.net or search Facebook and Twitter: @cddftcharity

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