Mobile cancer unit launches urgent appeal for funding

HOPE for Tomorrow, a mobile cancer care unit that provides cancer treatments to patients in Westbury, has launched an urgent appeal to raise £25,000 by the end of March to keep their service running. 

Hope for Tomorrow is a dedicated charity, bringing cancer care closer to patients’ homes via their mobile cancer care units (MCCUs).

The invaluable service has been visiting Westbury since 2012 and allows patients who previously had to travel to Salisbury to undergo treatment closer to home.

The charity said, “We need your support to continue our services. It costs £198 per day to run an MCCU. We are hoping to raise £25,000 by the end of March; enough to fund one of our units for 126 days, or our entire fleet for approximately 10 days. We are asking you to play your part in helping us to reach this target.

“We are the largest provider of mobile cancer care to the NHS, but yet we receive no government funding. In 2018, over 14,000 treatments were administered aboard our 12 MCCUs across 34 locations, reaching from Cornwall to Yorkshire.

“Fighting cancer is one of the hardest things any one will ever have to do, even without the additional stress of spending hours travelling long distances to hospitals to receive treatment. This is why Hope for Tomorrow brings cancer care closer to patients’ homes, to ease the strains of travel and to give them more time with their loved ones.

“For those of you that know us and have been long standing supporters of Hope for Tomorrow, you will know what a difficult year 2018 was for us. Our wonderful founder, Christine, whose husband’s long journey to the nearest oncology centre was the inspiration behind our MCCUs, passed away from cancer in September. This appeal will keep her vision alive, and enable us to keep the wheels turning on the Mobile Cancer Care project.”

Valerie Hughes, a South Wiltshire MCCU patient said, “It was wonderful to only have to travel five minutes to the local doctor’s car park. Instead of being away from home for more than half a day, I was back within 2 hours! It was good to meet other local people on treatment and the staff were always wonderful – it was stress free!”

If you would like to donate to the charity you can via: www.justgiving.com/campaign/urgentappeal. For more information about Hope for Tomorrow visit https://hope fortomorrow.org.uk.