Leading the world

Photo: Anthony Miller

The Prime Minister meets radiography control area staff

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PRIME MINISTER SINGS PRAISES OF OLDHAM’S NEW CANCER CENTRE

Oldham is leading the world with the newest hi-tech cancer services and tailored personal care.

That was the praise from the Prime Minister when he spent almost an hour at the new £17 million Christie radiotherapy centre.

The General Election may only be weeks away, but Gordon Brown showed no signs of tension as he joked, laughed and smiled with patients and staff during a visit which over ran his scheduled 40 minutes yesterday.

The new centre means 1,200 local people a year will not have to make the arduous journey to the Christie Centre in Withington.

Mr Brown said: “This will make a huge difference to bringing the best care and treatment to you at local level.

“Oldham is leading the way here and shows what progress we can make when we use the best equipment and make services more local.”

The Government’s aim for cancer patients is to get people seen by a specialist and diagnosed in a week, and in many cases the same day, he added.

He praised the Oldham centre’s bright, light, rooms and the way patients had been involved in the commissioning and design, adding: “It makes us the envy of the world.”

Mr Brown met Alan Smith (77) from Chadderton, who was on his second day of treatment by the £1.3 million, state-of-the-art linear accelerator that morning.

Mr Smith, who is being treated for prostate cancer, told him: “I’m from five minutes away. I think this new centre is brilliant. I went to Christie’s in Manchester and it used to take about an hour and a quarter to get there, plus I had to be ready two hours before for the ambulance, and wait two hours sometimes to come home. It could take all day.”

Mr Brown was shown the linear accelerator by the man who pioneered the idea of the centre and its high-tech facilities, Professor Peter Williams, a physicist and project director.

Professor Williams also showed him the new £500,000 CT scanner being installed six months ahead of schedule, the first of its kind for the Christie, and due to be operational in May. In the radiotherapy control area, Mr Brown saw how the linear accelerator is used to target the area of the body for treatment, after the scans pinpoint the exact spot where the cancer is found.

Cameras allow them to watch the process, while patients look up to a ceiling lit up by images of blue skies, white clouds and green leaves designed by fellow patients.

Mr Brown chatted to superintendent radiographer Melissa Woodward (35) from Royton, who explained how she and the team are making sure the scanner replicates the treatment patients already get in Withington.

Melissa, who started as a Christie student in 1993 and qualified in 1996, has been involved since the start of the Oldham project. She said: “Mr Brown was more chatty than I imagined and asked a lot of questions.”

The Prime Minister spent several minutes talking to patients who have finished their treatment at Withington and made a video which was shown to visitors at the Oldham centre’s open days last week.

They included Frances Cummins (74), who has been treated for breast cancer.

She told him she is a “Shaw Gawbie,” and added: “It is easier to travel here and there is no hassle traffic-wise.

“It’s closer to home. You get wound-up when travelling and feel better coming here.

“No-one wants cancer, but if you have to have it, this is the place to be. The staff are so good and it is like coming home.”