Roxane Moylan makes a mark at the topping-out ceremony
Construction of a £15 million Children’s and Young Persons’ Centre at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in Sutton has been marked with a traditional topping-out ceremony.
The ceremony involved Colin Rickard, Director of Projects at The Royal Marsden, using a silver trowel to commemorate the milestone in the construction of Europe’s leading cancer centre for children and teenagers. The celebration was held at 2.30pm on Monday 22 February. The construction work is being carried out by Mansell, and several representatives of their project team, The Royal Marsden and Teenage Cancer Trust attended the event along with some young patients.
Construction project
The project has two phases. Phase 1 involves construction of a two-storey ward block, one storey of which will be Teenage Cancer Trust’s unit specifically for young people with cancer. Part-funded by the charity, the unit will be a state-of-the-art space designed to feel like a home from home for patients.
Once this phase is completed the existing Children’s Unit will be refurbished to provide enhanced outpatient and day care facilities.
Improving cancer care
Professor Andy Pearson, who heads The Royal Marsden’s Clinical Unit for Children and Teenagers, said: “Over the last decade the overall cure rate for children with cancer has risen to 75% but unfortunately advances beyond this have reached a plateau. We plan to challenge this and improve the lives of every single child and teenager affected by cancer.”
Patient Roxane Moylan, 16, who took part in the ceremony, said: “I am really excited The Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign is raising money to build a new Centre. I think it will help lots of young people like me feel more homely while they are having treatment and give us more space to chill out.”
Sophie Bann, 19, was 15 when she was treated for cancer on a children’s ward at The Royal Marsden. She said: “The new Teenage Cancer Trust unit will be an amazing place where young people like me can be treated together. My treatment at the Marsden was great but I would have liked to have been around more people my own age. The other patients were often very, very young so I couldn’t communicate with them as much. Since being involved with Teenage Cancer Trust I’ve realised that there are many people like me going through the same thing, and I wish I had met them all earlier when we could have been a great help to each other!”
Progress
Phase 1 is due for completion in July 2010. Phase 2 will commence shortly afterwards and is scheduled to complete in February 2011.
A number of green elements will be incorporated into the building including:
- solar shading on the south and west sides
- 400m² of photovoltaic cells on the roof to help generate energy to run the centre
- rainwater will be collected and used for flushing toilets.
Martin Gaedke, Mansell’s Senior Site Manager for the development, said the company was delighted to be involved in this important project.
Helen Haynes, Regional Appeals Manager for Teenage Cancer Trust in the South, said: ”We are delighted to be marking this crucial stage of our exciting project with The Royal Marsden today. We look forward to opening the unit so that patients from across the South East can have access to the specialist facilities it will provide.”
Cancer in children
Of all chronic diseases in children, cancer is the biggest killer. The Royal Marsden is determined to make the lives of its young patients as relaxed as possible, and to pioneer drug developments and new treatments.