Will you support our winter appeal and bring the future forward for people with cancer?

The pandemic left hospitals all over the UK on the brink. The pressure on our healthcare system has been tough on patients with cancer, and their families.

We want to introduce new and innovative healthcare solutions into our local hospitals. We want people with cancer to have access to faster, less invasive treatments and to have a better experience during treatment. We want to help detect cancer in high-risk patients sooner. And we want to ease the trauma of receiving chemotherapy by using the latest virtual reality technology.

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is London’s biggest cancer treatment provider, and the UK’s third biggest. And the generosity of our local communities means that medical teams at Barnet, Chase Farm and Royal Free hospitals are able to go further and faster than they could with NHS  funding alone.

With your support the Royal Free Charity could fund:

• The introduction of London’s first thoracoscopy service. This would merge what are currently two separate procedures for patients with suspected lung cancer, and that could see patients starting their treatment up to four weeks earlier
• The expansion of a digital mammography service that picks up cancer that standard mammography doesn’t spot – and reduces the need for uncomfortable and stressful MRIs to assess how much a confirmed cancer has affected the breast tissue.
• The introduction of virtual reality therapy to help patients receiving chemotherapy to have a less unpleasant experience. Using virtual reality headsets, they can invoke the sensation of walking on a beach or in the woods, or even deep-sea diving with dolphins.

This vital appeal could make a real difference to diagnosis and patient experience, as well as supporting the charity’s wider work which helps the hospitals go above and beyond what the NHS can achieve alone.

Please give generously - and remember that donations will be matched!