Sheffield United F.C. is proud to support various local charities, including Weston Park Cancer Charity. In this article, we look at Weston Park Cancer Charity’s groundbreaking work to save and change lives by providing a full spectrum of support for people across Sheffield who are living with cancer.
Weston Park Cancer Charity relies on the tireless work of its volunteers, staff, fundraisers, and supporters to enable it to provide emotional and practical support to people living with and beyond cancer. The charity offers complementary therapies for cancer patients. In addition, it funds lifesaving clinical trials and research to save lives all over the world.
Offering Quality Care
In order to further its mission of improving the experience of treatment for cancer patients and their loved ones, Weston Park Cancer Charity has invested in numerous initiatives designed to add value to NHS provisions in one or more of the following areas:
- Living well with and beyond cancer with a particular emphasis on reaching demographics and communities facing health inequalities.
- Improving hospital services across Sheffield and the wider region, which includes enhancing the environment at Weston Park Cancer Centre.
- Projects co-produced or led by individuals with lived experience of cancer.
According to Sarah Danson, a professor of medical oncology, patients and their loved ones are fortunate to have the support of Weston Park Cancer Charity. This underscores the need to nurture it and ensure that it is there for the local population going forward, as it provides quality care and contributes to advancements in cancer treatment.
Improving Patients’ Comfort
Due to the generous support of patrons, Weston Park Cancer Charity was able to transform the brachytherapy and MRT suite at Weston Park Cancer Centre in Sheffield, providing many items to help enhance patients’ comfort, including WiFi, a new kitchen, LED dimmable lighting, recliner chairs, and smart TVs. In the first 12 months, over 100 patients admitted to the unit benefited from rooms refurbished by Weston Park Cancer Charity.
Brachytherapy is a form of radiation therapy that can result in extended hospital stays. Patients often have to spend days at a time in specially designed rooms to protect other people from the radiation given off from their bodies following treatment.
In 2017, Weston Park Cancer Charity launched a fundraising campaign to improve inpatient facilities at Weston Park Hospital. The charity’s mission focused on improving patient comfort, enhancing patient and visitor services, and preventing isolation. These improvements made a huge difference in the comfort and experience of patients, staff, and visitors alike. The charity provided greatly improved WiFi to improve patients’ entertainment options and communication.
Weston Park Cancer Charity also gifted smart TVs to reduce isolation, enabling patients to communicate with their loved ones via a video link. In addition, the charity provided colorful artwork displays to improve well-being, as well as comfortable recliner chairs for visiting relatives, and circadian lighting to help patients get a good night’s sleep. The charity also improved day room facilities so that patients and visitors could enjoy a shared space to spend time together and reflect.
Enhancing Cancer Treatment
Weston Park Cancer Charity is committed to enhancing cancer treatment and improving infrastructure for patients and hospital staff teams across Sheffield. The charity provided groundbreaking Dosecheck software to Weston Park’s radiotherapy department, which has had a game-changing impact since its installation. Providing semi-automated checks on dosage strength and accuracy, the system has helped to streamline processes for assessing treatment plans, a function that was a safety critical, yet incredibly time-consuming part of the hospital team’s work previously.
Funded by Weston Park Cancer Charity, the Dosecheck system checks whole dose distribution in 3D, assessing treatment plans, providing 3D analysis, and warning if dose distribution is out of tolerance. The system saves staff valuable time, automatically loading patient care plans onto the treatment planning system and performing necessary checks. Dosecheck is a semi-automatic software system that relieves staff of a multitude of time-intensive tasks. Moreover, the adoption of Dosecheck has increased the accuracy of design and calculations, providing assurance for both patients and staff that treatment plans are the best possible fit for each patient.
Funding Cancer Research
Since Weston Park Hospital opened in 1970, cancer survival rates have more than doubled thanks to some incredible medical advancements. Today, more than 77% of individuals diagnosed with breast cancer live for at least 10 years following diagnosis compared with 44% in the 1970s.
This is due, in large part, to cancer research. Weston Park Cancer Charity is committed to funding lifesaving cancer research to prevent the spread of cancer, integrating modern imaging into patient care, bringing new treatments to the clinic, and improving the quality of life and patient experience both during and beyond treatment. Weston Park Chancer Charity is proud to fund research projects designed to improve the understanding and treatment of cancer, as well as invest in scientific, medical, and care-related research to enable people to live longer and better lives.