Young people with cancer do much better if they are treated with others in the same age group. Health Editor Barry Nelson visits the region's only teenage cancer unit

CANCER specialist Kevin Windebank's eyes light up when he talks about the impact the region's only teenage cancer unit has had.

Since it opened just over ten years ago hundreds of North-East teenagers have gossiped, laughed, played table football and pool and watched Big Brother together while battling cancer.

It is a testament to the teen-friendly atmosphere created at the Royal Victoria Infirmary's special unit that recovering cancer patient Rachel Drew can tell you that there were times that she was having so much fun that she actually forgot she was in hospital having treatment for cancer.

There is also the small matter of the Teenage Cancer Trust's (TCT) claim that youngsters treated on one of the UK's seven specialist teenage units are 15 per cent more likely to make a full recovery.

The trust - which raised most of the money to open the North-East's first and only teenage cancer unit - wants to open another 15 in towns and cities across Britain. Recently a North-East businessman launched an X Factor-style contest to help the TCT raise £1.5m to assist with the modernisation of facilities at the Newcastle unit and simultaneously unearth musical talent in the North-East.

A twinkly-eyed Dr Windebank, who enters into the spirit by wearing a discreet Wallace and Gromit tie, is proud of what has been achieved in the past decade. He is even more excited at the prospect of the lived-in and cramped unit moving into more spacious accommodation as part of dramatic modernisation plans which will transform the RVI over the next few years.

Dr Windebank worked with teenage cancer patients at the hospital before the special unit opened, when young patients were rigidly divided between a children's ward for under 18s and an adult ward for over 18s. This meant younger teenagers were often treated in an environment more suited to younger children and older teenagers were sometimes placed on wards with people in their 70s and 80s.

"We are not saying that teenagers did not get good treatment before this unit opened, but we would argue that teenagers have specific needs and do better with other teenagers," he says.

The consultant oncologist believes that treating teenagers together might help to improve cancer survival rates for young adults. "Survival rates for child cancer patients have gone up markedly in recent years but young people are lagging behind and we are trying to redress the balance."

Dr Windebank thinks the unit is "wonderful we have learned so much".

What is a particular source of pride is that the Newcastle unit - which takes teenagers from the entire North-East including North Yorkshire - was the first to open outside London. "The teenagers support each other, have fun together and help to boost morale at what is a very difficult time."

Sarah Donoghue, a staff nurse on the unit, agrees. "It does make a difference having a dedicated teenage unit. I was around before the unit opened and in those days none of them got to know each other very well. There were not the opportunities to meet and become friends,"

she says. "Really, I have noticed a massive difference. The teenagers have their own network of friends, people they met on the unit."

"We have massive fun. Apart from hanging out on the unit we have boat trips, trips to London, bowling. When they finish their treatment many of them stay in touch and some of them come back to visit patients on the unit."

One important aspect of the teenage cancer unit is that the informal, friendly environment, with its brightly coloured leather sofas, computers, pool table and table football game, encourages patients' friends to visit.

"We didn't see that before. Friends used to be too frightened. Now they come in and get to understand what their friends are going through."

RACHEL Drew, 20, from Ponteland, near Newcastle, knows only too well what life on the unit was like.

When she was 17 she was diagnosed with bone cancer just below her right knee.

Matter-of-factly she explains that doctors warned her that if treatment was not successful she might lose a leg.

"I had a section of the bone replaced with a metal implant and then nine months of chemotherapy," says Rachel, who is now in remission. "I loved the unit.

I made some really good friends. There is such a nice atmosphere."

Originally Rachel was treated on a children's ward at another hospital, which didn't help. "I was with five-year-olds and there was a very clinical atmosphere. The worst thing was that there was nobody my age I could talk to."

After she was transferred to the RVI's teenage unit things started looking up.

"Don't get me wrong, the side-effects of the chemo I was having were awful, but the unit was so nice that sometimes you could even forget you were in hospital. I was watching stuff like Big Brother with my mates on the unit every night."

Another veteran of the ward is Michael Balfour, from South Shields. Michael, 16, is now in remission after treatment for a cancer affecting his nose and gullet. "I had a lump on my neck and a mate's mam asked me what it was," says Michael, who was quickly diagnosed and admitted to the unit. "I couldn't imagine what it would be like not to be on the teenage unit. The ward is fantastic, like a second home, and the nurses are great."

Rachel and Michael were both at last week's launch of Music Means Life, a talent competition for unsigned North-East musicians and bands which also aims to raise money for the RVI's new unit and help youngsters make a name for themselves.

From February 1, unsigned musicians who live in the region can apply by uploading music to the www.musicmeanslife.

com website. Ticket information about the semi-finals and finals will also be available from the same website.

The event was organised by North-East businessman Gary Thompson, who was inspired after seeing the star-studded Bandstand fundraising concert in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust at the Gateshead Sage last year.