Lifesaving research into children's cancer in Newcastle has been given a remarkable £200,000 boost as part of a new partnership between charities in the city.
Newcastle Hospitals Charity has made the grant directly to Children's Cancer North - who pay for vital research at the Wolfson Childhood Cancer Centre at Newcastle University. It's a two-year package of money that the charities involved said would help make up for loss of funds seen during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chris Peacock, chair of Children's Cancer North, said: "The pandemic and cost-of-living crisis have caused a very difficult climate for all charities. We had to cancel major fundraising events and this caused a substantial drop in income over the past two years. The impact of this meant that we have only been able to fund around 75% of our usual grant to the Wolfson Centre.
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"Newcastle Hospitals Charity and Children’s Cancer North have often worked collaboratively, so it seemed natural for our two charities to join forces to ensure this vital research can continue without interruption over the next two years - it’s great news."
The extra cash will help to fund - among other projects - two new PhD researchers at the centre, adding to the 90-strong team. The research which takes place at the Wolfson Centre focuses on improving the quality of life of children during and after cancer treatment - this is done by working on better treatments and helping to find breakthroughs to treat children with the most aggressive kinds of cancer.
Teri Bayliss, director at Newcastle Hospitals Charity, said: "As the official charity for Newcastle Hospitals, we are committed to collaborating with many of the charities who work within the hospitals. Partnership working is a key part of our strategy to help reduce health inequalities and drive forward research capacity in the North East, so we were delighted that we were able to support Children’s Cancer North in their excellent work championing cancer care and research for our youngest patients."
Prof Steve Clifford runs the Newcastle Uni Centre for Cancer. He said research in the city had been "central to improvements" in care over recent decades and added: "Our Wolfson Centre was established to bring together teams of researchers and clinicians from across Newcastle University and Hospitals, to discover and develop the next wave of advances. Funding from Children’s Cancer North has been a cornerstone of our work over the last 40 years, and we are very excited by this new partnership with Newcastle Hospitals Charity."
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