800 reasons to celebrate as Christie at Oldham marks first birthday in style
Reporter: Marina Berry
Date published: 17 March 2011
MORE than 800 local people have a reason to celebrate this week as The Christie at Oldham marks its first anniversary.
The £17million radiotherapy centre, at the Royal Oldham Hospital, saved them from having to battle through traffic on long daily journeys to Withington for cancer treatment.
A giant-sized birthday cake was made especially for the occasion by Park Cake Bakeries, Oldham, which also supplied more treats for patients and staff.
The Christie at Oldham success is due partly to Chronicle readers who made a huge £100,000 donation, raised in just seven months after the newspaper teamed up with The Christie to turn its dream of a satellite centre in Oldham into a reality.
It is the first of its kind in the UK, paving the way for a network of radiotherapy centres run by the Christie across the region. Jack Horrocks (74), was the first patient to be treated, undergoing four weeks of radiotherapy after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Now one year on, the grandfather-of-four, said; “It was very relaxing to think The Christie centre in Oldham was just 10 minutes down the road.
“Travelling just wasn’t an issue and was one less thing to worry about. I was back on the golf course at the start of May last year and I feel great.”
Chief executive at The Christie, Caroline Shaw, said: “This centre was built to transform treatment for cancer patients.
“Over the past 12 months, more than 800 people have benefited from receiving Christie care much closer to their homes, saving them thousands of travelling miles.”
Besides treating patients closer to home with the most advanced equipment, the centre has also been leading the way with further developments.
Lead radiographer at the centre, Saddleworth’s Julie Davies, said: “From day one, we brought in a more advanced system for checking doses, which is now being introduced at our main site in South Manchester, called invivo dosimetry.
“This method of independently checking doses and scale of monitoring is completely new to The Christie.”
Radiographers are also now carrying out four dimensional scanning of lung cancer patients, which means experts can monitor how a tumour moves with time, and allows patients to be treated with high doses of radiotherapy in shorter periods.
Planning and treatment for palliative treatments is also now done at the centre.
The Christie at Oldham treats 70 patients a day with two state-of-the-art £1.3 million radiotherapy machines – the most advanced of their kind in the world.
