The Research facility at the Royal Marsden Hospital
There is little more devastating than a diagnosis of cancer - especially if that diagnosis is of a particularly rare type of that disease.
With the added concern attached to the lockdown for the Covid-19 pandemic, this is the situation which one of our Members found themselves in recently.
In addition, it transpired that in spite of having world class cancer treatment available at our local Gorleston and Norwich Hospitals, this particular form of the disease required expertise only available at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London.
Further investigation revealed that the research facilities at the ‘Royal Marsden’ spearhead our NHS’s efforts to gain further knowledge on the rarer types of cancer and many dozens of local people are referred there each year to benefit from the latest research results.
Once the best course of treatment is established - that knowledge can then be disseminated throughout our NHS and in many cases, once the specialist has prescribed the individual patient’s treatment plan, this is communicated to the appropriate local hospital to administer, to avoid travelling large distances on a regular basis.
The Research Facility at the Royal Marsden is funded entirely by Charitable donations and in common with most Charities, during the pandemic the donations essential to keep this life saving research going have dropped dramatically.
When it was suggested that Beccles & District Lions Club might make a donation to The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, there was some hesitation and intense discussion as our policy is generally to support locally based causes.
However, bearing in mind the benefits which our local hospitals and patients accrue from the support given by the Royal Marsden’s world leading research, the Club decided that it was a very similar situation to that with the Air Ambulance Service donations, where our contributions on behalf of the people of Beccles were considered more than justified to assist in keeping an invaluable service available to all.
We were pleased therefore to send The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity a cheque for £500 to help with their work.