C3 Magazine Spring 2016
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The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre Magazine Spring 2016 FREE please take me home Transforming Cancer Care £15 million new cancer hospital appeal launched In this issue... Clatterbridge in the Community Chemotherapy at home extended to Liverpool patients Life after cancer in the fast lane Patient Pete Williams shares his story Pioneering Breast Cancer Trials Vital research using the ‘window of opportunity’ Contents News 3 £1.6 million investment in new radiotherapy technology Clatterbridge Board welcomes new executive member New PET-CT service 7 Telephone service helping reduce new patients’ anxiety Our telephone numbers are changing in 2016 10 Cancer treatment in the comfort of your own home Welcome 11 The Hair Fairy - ‘Look Good Nights’ Chief Executive, Andrew Cannell Hello my name is... 12/13 Worrying attitudes to cancer Firstly, I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. 14 Staff Achievement Award winners We ended 2015 with a major achievement – submitting an application The Care Certificate - Deborah Prout for full planning permission for our new centre in Liverpool. 15 Emma Holmes moves from the office to the frontline With this in mind, 2016 is going to be an incredibly exciting year for It’s a win win for Callie! the Trust as we hope to get full planning permission in the spring and building work will start at the end of the summer. Following years of Features planning this will be a fantastic milestone and it will mark the start of an incredible journey. 4/5 Patient Pete Williams’ story 16/17 Pioneering Breast Cancer Trials To help us achieve this, our Charity will be launching a £15 million New 19 Consultant profile – Professor Pieter Postmus Cancer Hospital Appeal later in the year. We already have a lot of people showing their support but we need more – take a look on pages 8-9. 20 Liverpool mum is inspiring fellow cancer patients with wellbeing initiative We’ve had some big service developments over the last few months: we’ve extended our Treatment at Home service, we now have our own Charity News PET-CT, we’ve invested in new 8/9 £15 million New Cancer Hospital Appeal equipment and are working on 18 Bronze for Clatterbridge Physicists at the some pioneering breast cancer Bangor Rally! trials. You can read about all of Get in these inside this issue. Cartoonist Bill Tidy’s Afternoon Tea touch John Berry jumps in the saddle We have also carried out a 22 Events calendar survey into people’s attitudes to We would love to hear cancer. The results, shown on The Clatterbridge Wig Walk 2016 pages 12-13, were a real eye about your experiences at Grand Atlantic Ball success opener and showed that work the Centre, so please get still needs to be done to raise in touch. Transforming Cancer Care awareness of the signs and symptoms of different cancers. 6 Positive response to new hospital designs Emer Scott Associate Director of Foundation Trust News Communications 21 Meet your Governors emer.scott@ Become a Governor Chief Executive Andrew Cannell clatterbridgecc.nhs.uk Dates for your diary 0151 482 7920 Time for You @cccnhs 23 Recipe and puzzle 2 Spring 2016 Headline News Our picks from the latest topics... £1.6 million investment in new radiotherapy technology ››› We have added a new world-class piece of equipment to our portfolio of treatment options. With help from charitable donations, the £1.6 million piece of kit called the Varian Edge is the second machine of its kind to be purchased by the Centre. Working in sync with the original Varian Edge, specialists are now delivering more accurate radiotherapy treatment to patients with complex, hard to reach tumours. Kieran Woods, head of radiotherapy, said: “The advanced technology will be primarily used to treat lung cancer patients with a specific technique called stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR). Whilst the technology itself delivers a faster treatment experience for patients, it will also help to streamline the treatment process by working in conjunction with the Edge we already have.” We are the only UK facility to be recognised as a Varian Educational Reference Centre. As a leading facility for radiotherapy we host workshops and conferences for leading clinicians from across the globe. New PET-CT service ››› The Centre introduced a new Clatterbridge Board welcomes permanent PET-CT service in new executive member November. Positron emission tomography– computed tomography (PET-CT) ››› Barney Schofield, Director of Reshaping our executive team is a diagnostic imaging technique Transformation & Innovation joined with this new role emphasises the that combines a PET scan with a CT us in November. importance transformation and scan to produce detailed pictures innovation will play in our continued that provide even better information Barney previously worked as the growth and success and our about how tissue is working. PET- Programme Director and Associate ambitions in the coming years. CT has revolutionised medical Director of Strategy at University diagnosis in many fields including Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Welcome Barney! cancer staging and radiotherapy Trust. planning. Barney is an Executive member of A mobile PET-CT scanning unit the Trust Board and will lead on the previously operated at the Centre service redesign and organisational once a week, but following a £2m transformation required to prepare for investment in a new scanner and our new cancer hospital in Liverpool, estate improvements the Imaging as well as supporting our innovative department is now running our approach to cancer care and treatment. own permanent service. Working closely with colleagues at the Royal The role includes identifying new Liverpool hospital, who also have opportunities to ensure we continue a PET-CT scanner in operation, we delivering true clinical excellence and are now able to offer patients across the best quality care while remaining the region a choice of locations at our long-term clinical and financial their earliest convenience to meet sustainability. the national standard of a five-day appointment turnaround. Spring 2016 3 FEATURE Life after cancer in the fast lane -year-old Pete Williams from “I was third quickest in Europe in my Pete added: “I have been building a 74 Warrington has been in younger days back in 1968 on my new machine for some time now. It is the sport of motorcycle sprint and home-built double-engined Triumph powered by an aircraft engine! This drag racing for over 50 years. That drag-bike. It covered the standing- one requires a fire-retardent suit. I is however, with a 12-month break start 1/4mile in 10.21 seconds setting wouldn't like to make any predictions in 2010 when he was diagnosed a course record which I held for about its speed but I will be with cancer at the age of 69. After four years. My top speed then was disappointed if I don’t get somewhere chemotherapy and radiotherapy 140.8mph. As it had two engines, and towards 300mph. I will keep going, as treatment, Pete took six months to was also temperamental, I called that long as I remain upright!” recover and get well enough to race bike “Two Faced” and the name has again, but he was determined to get stuck on all my machines. back in the saddle and return to his life and passion for speed. “My recent drag-racing and land speed racing has been on my Suzuki After five years of six-monthly check- Hayabusa which I bought second ups, he is now in remission. And hand back in 2006 and spent two in August 2014, just one month years radically modifying it for drag- before his 73rd birthday, he ran a racing. I clocked up a best speed speed of 203.1mph. Just to put of 196.6mph in 2012 but I needed a that in perspective, it is as fast as a bit more power to reach my target of Formula1 car and 20mph faster than 200mph, so I fitted a nitrous oxide kit. a jumbo-jet’s take-off speed! I battled with adverse conditions – rain, head winds and cross winds at Pete told us: “I have gone far faster in every attempt over the next two years my older years than I ever did in my to reach my target. But on the right younger years, and this puts paid to day and using the nitrous – I did it! the ‘knockers’ I’ve had over the years Not only did I do it, I exceeded it – who said I’m ‘over the hill’. At least 203.1mph! I’ve been to the ‘top of the hill’! “With that little extra boost, I got “I suffered a heart attack in 1998, but there. And I can’t help feel it was got fit again and had my race licence the little extra boost from the team granted to carry on. So getting the at Clatterbridge that got me through cancer diagnosis was a blow, but I to remission. With all the available knew if I kept my mind strong I could medical treatment in the world, come through this the other end too. sometimes it’s a positive mental I was referred to Dr Haylock at The attitude and that little extra boost – Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and the whatever that might be – that will get treatment and care I received could you through. And in my case, better not have been bettered anywhere than I had ever been before!” else. I am indebted to him and his team of nurses and radiographers Dr Haylock said: “Pete’s major for the excellent way in which I was passion is his sprint and drag looked after..