MedEquip4Kids and Rosemere Cancer Foundation working together to furnish a family room at Royal Preston Hospital

Rosemere Cancer Centre’s in-patient Ribblesdale Ward provides specialist treatment for young people from across Lancashire and South Cumbria who are suffering from adult cancers, in particular young men with testicular cancer. They may be in hospital for a prolonged period, away from family and the support of their peers at a frightening time. The family room will include a kitchenette and dining area and a lounge equipped with a TV, DVD player and Xbox. It will be decorated to ensure the environment is as non-clinical, homely and age-appropriate as possible. MedEquip4Kids, which provides equipment and facilities not available from limited NHS resources, aims to raise funds with the support of its principal sponsors VINCI Construction UK, from the proceeds of their annual Shimmer Ball and other initiatives. VINCI has supported the charity since 2009 and to date have raised over £300,000 for children’s healthcare. Sue Thompson, Rosemere Cancer Foundation’s chief officer, said: “The room will provide young patients with a comfortable, private space in which they can come together with friends and family at a very stressful time. “It gives them a space away from the bedside, where they can do normal things like watch TV, play a game, make a snack or catch up over a cuppa. It will never be home, but for a while at least we hope it will be the next best thing.”The creation of the family room is part of an £842,000 project to remodel the Ribblesdale Ward to achieve the best possible treatment environment for patients. It is one of a trio of ground-breaking initiatives by Rosemere Cancer Foundation that together formed its 20 Years Anniversary Appeal.The appeal launched last year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the opening of Rosemere Cancer Centre and has so far raised in excess of £1.5 million. This money has already been used to equip Rosemere Cancer Centre with the world’s most advanced robotic surgical system, making it one of only three centres in the country to have such a piece of kit and the only one in the whole of the North of England.It has also been used to fund an oncology research co-ordinator and a research centre pharmacy and path lab to enable more of Rosemere Cancer Centre’s patients to join clinical trials. This effectively gives them access to the very latest anti-cancer medicines and therapies being developed globally - potentially years ahead of their availability on the NHS.