We launched our new appeal in November 2011 to raise £350,000 for a new Pain Management Centre at The National.
Nearly one in five people has a problem with chronic pain. Usually this isn't because of something life - threatening but is certainly life - altering.The current Pain Management Centre sees about 30 new patients a week and now urgently needs an upgrade.
We need to rebuild the department with separate facilities for male and female patients, facilities that are accessible to disabled people and piped pxygen at all day case bed spaces and better use of space for the larger numbers of staff.
Help us to raise £1.35 million for the new Neuro Imaging Analysis Centre which will directly benefit patients with brain cancers, Parkinson’s and Prion diseases and neuromuscular and neurodegenerative disorders including dementia and stroke.
In the past five years patient numbers at the National- from across London and the UK - have risen from 55,000 to 130,000. This increased demand is having a major impact on the services provided by the Neuroradiology team which now carries out more than 39,000 examinations and diagnostic reports annually, and each year the volume grows.
For these reasons, the need for a new Neuro Imaging Analysis Centre is vital. It will be a catalyst for fundamental change allowing improved surgical planning, reduce waiting times for examinations, procedures and diagnosis and thereby improve clinical care and patient outcomes.
The UK’s first dedicated brain tumour unit opened its doors to patients in January 2011 and has been named the Molly Lane Fox unit. The new facility is a hub of expertise for brain tumours and will be at the forefront of brain cancer care, both nationally and internationally.
The whole purpose of this new unit is to improve the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with brain tumours. By specialising and investing in more focused research and clinical trials we hope to see the kind of results experienced with breast cancer and childhood leukaemia, where prognosis and survival rates have improved dramatically in recent years.
A Brain Tumour Bank has been set up which will make it possible for research teams to find out much more about the nature of different types of tumours and, with this increased knowledge, establish new approaches to treating them. In addition, a clinical database has been created which will eventually track the treatment and progress of patients across the UK which again will create a hub of information about how effective current and new approaches are, which can then be disseminated to specialists worldwide.
Molly’s Fund was established by The National Brain Appeal in memory of five-year old Molly Lane Fox who sadly died in July 2008, following a seven-month battle against a brain tumour. Hatty and Oliver, Molly’s parents, told The National Brain Appeal: “The medical and palliative support that Molly received was superb. However, specialists operate out of different hospitals, treatment and research is difficult and clinical trials in the UK are few and far between. Molly’s radiotherapy bought us precious and happy time that we will always treasure, but the only option available for us to buy more would have been to take her to Germany for further treatment, and sadly she was not well enough for this. We cannot help but think that, if the same treatment had been available in the UK, we would have had more precious time with our wonderful girl.” Molly’s Fund has so far raised over £460,000 towards the new Brain Tumour Unit.