Charity staff step in to help Christie patients during the coronavirus

Thursday, 11 June 2020 17:33

Staff from The Christie charity have been stepping in to support cancer patients as part of the hospital’s ongoing work to support patients during the coronavirus outbreak.

In addition to continuing to seek donations, where possible, for the work of The Christie hospital, staff at the charity wanted to help cancer patients directly and have been allocated to a variety of different roles across the hospital.

Charity staff have been providing a range of support for their hospital colleagues including providing transport for patients at risk to get them to their essential appointments, delivering essential pharmacy medicines to patients at home, providing portering support, directing patients around the hospital and screening patients coming into the hospital each day by checking their temperature.

This ensures that patients who may have the COVID-19 virus are identified quickly, offered appropriate support and do not put other patients or clinical staff at risk of catching the virus.

Hazel Rushton (49) from Poynton, is one of the charity staff helping to deliver essential medicines from The Christie pharmacy to patients in their own homes, to save them from having to make unnecessary journeys and putting themselves at risk.

Hazel said: “I’m more than happy to support the Trust with anything which helps during this pandemic. It’s a privilege to be able to help cancer patients undergoing treatment during this challenging time.”

The Christie charity supports the work of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust providing enhanced services over and above what the NHS funds. This includes money for care and treatment, research, education and extra patient services. Gifts from the public make a huge difference to the care and treatment that The Christie is able to provide to patients and their families.

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust was the first specialist trust to be rated as ‘Outstanding’ twice (in 2016 and 2018) by the health regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC). It referred to The Christie as ‘a leader in cancer care’ and ‘a pioneer in developing innovative solutions to cancer care.’ The CQC praised the Trust’s staff which it said ‘go the extra mile to meet the needs of patients and their families’ and that they were ‘exceptionally kind and caring.’ In 2017, the CQC rated The Christie as the best specialist trust in the country, and one of the top three trusts overall in England.

Local people can continue to support the work of The Christie charity during the COVID-19 pandemic by visiting www.christies.org/donate

About The Christie:

The Christie opened in 1901 and is now one of Europe’s leading cancer centres and the largest single-site centre in Europe
We are the largest radiotherapy provider in the NHS. We are also the largest provider in Europe, with one in 20 radiotherapy treatments delivered at The Christie. We are one of only two cancer centres worldwide to offer both MR-linac and high energy proton beam therapy (the other is MD Anderson in Texas, US).
The Christie delivers chemotherapy treatment through the largest chemotherapy unit in the UK, as well as via 12 other sites, a mobile chemotherapy unit and in patients’ homes.
The Christie is a specialist tertiary surgical centre concentrating on rare cancers, specialist procedures and multidisciplinary cancer surgery. It is one of the largest HIPEC centres in western Europe and one of only two in the UK to provide this treatment for appendiceal and colorectal tumours. It also has one of the largest robotic centres in the UK and the largest complex pelvic cancer team in the UK.
The Christie is one of Europe's experimental cancer medicine centres and an international leader in research and development with around 650 clinical studies ongoing at any one time. The NIHR Manchester Clinical Research Facility at The Christie provides a high quality, dedicated clinical research environment for our patients to participate in trials.

· The Christie charity is currently fundraising for some vital new projects including a new cancer centre in Macclesfield providing care closer to home, refurbishment of our CT scanning department with an improved environment and the latest 4D CT technology, and with our partners at The University of Manchester and Cancer Research UK, plans to build a new world class transformational research facility to replace the Paterson building. Find out more at www.christies.org/the-christie-charity/why-we-need-your-help/what-we-are-fundraising-for

· The Christie has one of the largest hospital charities in the UK with 81p in every pound raised going directly to the patients. We work hard to make sure that the money donated to us is spent where the hospital needs it most and we produce a separate Impact Report which gives more detail about how the charitable income is spent and the difference it has made to our patients and their families.

· We have achieved a phenomenal amount thanks to the backing of our donors. In the past five years, our charity has helped to fund a purpose built teenage and young adult unit integrated with a haematology and transplant inpatient ward, a new Integrated Procedures Unit, a proton beam therapy research room, a state of the art MR-linac machine, a new gamma camera and new outreach services. Read more at www.christies.org/the-christie-charity/why-we-need-your-help/how-youve-helped/

In 2018/19, The Christie charity was supported by 7,175 sporting event participants, 4,426 donations from individuals, 1,083 corporate fundraisers, 57 charitable trusts, 251 people who left a legacy, 1,720 donations in memory of a loved one and 1,050 community events.
Supporters can find out how to donate and make a payment at www.christies.org/the-christie-charity/donate/make-a-donation/

Pictured - Hazel Rushton

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