Small Grants:
These are grants of up to £3,000 which any member of staff at Weston Park Hospital can apply for, for something that will improve conditions or treatments for patients.
Each application is considered on an individual basis and awarded on merit. The hospital's General Manger and Nurse Director meet frequently with the Director of the Cancer Appeal to approve these awards.
Our policy is not to keep patients waiting and we generally pay for these items from our reserve's (rather like if your boiler breaks down you have to pay for it then and there). We then do the fundraising for the items later.
Recently we have approved grants for the plastic wallets that all new patients receive to keep their important documents in; an 'extra' breastboard for the radiotherapy department: an evaluation of a new clinical service for the followup of men with early stage, stable,prostate cancer: cotton scarves for the hospital's voluntary Headways service.
If you would like immediate information on any recent applications please contact us and we can talk you through which small grants we are currently collecting donations for.
Major Grants:
These are grants of more than £3,000. Applications are invited from the hospital, the Cancer Research Centre and the Cancer Support Centre twice a year. The screening process is a rigorous 4-stage process for major grants to ensure your money will be best spent where it can have most impact. If you would like to know how these decisions are made please contact the Cancer Appeal and ask to speak with the Director.
We are currently raising funds to pay for the following vital work. Please do not be put off by the large amounts of money listed. Often work on these projects are taking place over a number of years. Every penny you contribute helps - together we can and do make a difference.
Cancer Research Centre £270,000 for this year. Your donations allow us to keep vital facility running. In turn our researchers are enabled to attract many millions of pounds worth of further funding for an impressive array of world class cancer research across all cancer types.
Cancer Support Centre £160,000 for this year. This centre provides free and vital support for anyone who is affected by cancer - whether you have cancer and need practical help or emotional support - or if someone you care for has cancer and you need help in coping or understanding what is happening.
Complementary Therapy £20,000 - provides free complimentary therapy sessions at the Cancer Support Centre. At present these are provided to patients from Barnsley, Doncaster, Worksop, Rotherham or Chesterfield who do not have access to these types of services locally.
Survive and Thrive - £562,083 over 5 years - Weston Park Hospital is leading the way in research into what happens after you have been 'cured' of cancer. Statistically 1 in every 900 young people in the UK has survived cancer and with increasingly effective treatments this figure is expected to rise to 1 in every 250 over the next 5 years. This is a major research project running across Weston Park Hospital, the Royal Hallamshire Hospital and Sheffield Children's Hospital. It hopes to determine the best practices in follow up and provision of after care for survivors of cancer.
Metastatic Bone Disease Research - £79,795 - Secondary tumours frequently form in the skeleton causing pain and fractures. This project looks at the role of a certain protein in metastatic bone disease. It is lead by Professor Robert Coleman, who is head of the Weston Park Cancer Research Centre and a world leading authority on metastatic bone disease.
Tumour Cell Bone Cell Interactions - £118,984 - In this project we will investigate how tumour cells change when they come into contact with cells in bone, and how the tumour cells may cause changes in the bone itself. We will also investigate what happens when we use combinations of drugs to target either the cancer cells or the bone cells, and determine if this can slow down tumour growth in bone
Genetic factors affecting breast cancer progression - £72,207 - Many women now survive breast cancer. However it still causes 2% of all female deaths. This project aims to identify the genetic factors which cause some breast cancers to aggressive and fatal in some women and so seek a remedy.
Small Cell Lung Cancer Research - £73,800 - in certain types of lung cancer (small cell lung cancer) patients develop a resistance to chemotherapy and so loose access to a vital weapon in the fight against the disease. This research looks at how resistance develops and how it can be over come.
4D Tomography - Research £90,000 - Equipment £65,000 - for use in planning the treatment of lung tumours. The fantastic accuracy of this machine will take into account the movement in a person’s chest and lungs when breathing and so enables pin point accuracy in the delivering of radio therapy. This is a huge advance, as radio therapy kills tumour cells, but also damages surrounding healthy tissue. Whilst the healthy cells will heal themselves over a period of time, avoiding or minimising the damage in the first place is a huge step forward and a great benefit to our patients.
Vulval Malignancy Research - £45,072 - The chances of long term survival after cancer have improved dramatically over the past two decades. However, survival comes with a cost. Cancer treatment can cause long-term damage to health and well being.Our researchers aim to carry out the first study in women with endometrial and vulval cancer to assess the impact of treatment on their quality of life, pelvic floor function and side effects. The results will help in designing less debilitating treatments
Research into the possibility of stopping the growth of tumours by eliminating their blood supply -£97,384 In order for a tumour to grow bigger than a pinhead (2mm in diameter) it must develop its own blood vessels to supply the nutrients it needs to grow. If researchers can find ways to stop the tumour from forming blood vessels, the cancer cells will be unable to survive. Over 3 years
Chemotherapy Research Nurse- £26,320 - Use of antibody treatments in the management of cancer is one of the biggest treatment changes in recent years. The use of these new drugs in clinical trails requires specialist care. We are funding a chemotherapy nurse for a further 2 year period to enable as many patients as possible to have access right now to these new and innovative therapies.
Breast Cancer Aftercare – £86,406 - This follows on from a previous study funded by the Cancer Appeal which hopes to develop a new care package for women on discharge from routine hospital followup after breast cancer treatment. This looks at anxiety and emotional issues which often accompany discharge.
Soft Tissue Sarcoma Research - £132,383 - The Sheffield Sarcoma Group is respected as one of the best in the UK. An excellent multidisciplinary team has been established and two of the applicants for funding are international experts in this uncommon group of cancers. This genetic research project has been defined as not only being of benefit to those suffering from these rare cancers, the findings may have far reaching implications in the entire field of cancer research
Research into uveal melanoma - £159,948 - uveal melanomas are rare eye tumours and Weston Park Hospital is a UK specialist centre for the treatment of this type of cancer. The investigating team are recognised as leaders in this area of genetics studies and findings in this research could be relevant to the much commoner skin melanoma.
Research into skin cancer - £42,163 - Melanoma is the most aggressive skin cancer and its incidence is increasing. Though some risk factors (sunlight, family history) are well established, the factors responsible for the dramatic rise in incidence are poorly understood. A better understanding of the causes will enable the identification of individuals at highest risk, offering them interventions or entry into new drugs trials or surveillance programmes.
Activity Coordinator for the Teenage Cancer Unit - £27,000 - It it recognised that cancer in young people presents particular complex problems, not least of which is isolation from peers and the activities they would be taking part in if they were well.This post provides a non clinical person who can support patients and their families to maintain as normal a life as possible.
Image guided radiotherapy On- Board Imager (OBI) system - £340,000 - Tumours move. They change size and shape during treatment, and with lung tumours, there is the added complication of the movement associated with breathing. This new technology can capture more accurate 3D images during treatment and track the movement of the tumour thus allowing improved target dose coverage and reduction is normal tissue damage.
Lecturer in Image Guided Radiotherapy to conduct research - part time - £70,944 - Medical imaging lies at the heart of recent advances in radiotherapy planning and delivery. This lecturer will be responsible for a number of existing high profile research projects and for the initiation of further cutting-edge collaborative research proposals. this work builds upon experience gained from recent PET and MRI research projects for head and neck and lung cancer and included potential collaboration with researchers in Belfast & USA.
