Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance is helping to fund a new UK first model of children’s cancer treatment, delivering chemotherapy and supportive cancer treatments on a mobile cancer care unit that will be based in the North West as part of a pilot.
The pioneering children’s mobile cancer care unit becomes the first of it’s kind in the UK and will service children undergoing cancer treatment in Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside and Lancashire and South Cumbria thanks to Alliance funding
The new service will be run by North West Children’s Cancer Operational Delivery Network (NWCCODN), Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Manchester NHS Foundation Trust and Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust with the unit being provided by charity Hope for Tomorrow.
It is funded by the three Cancer Alliances within the North West (Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance, Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance and Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Alliance). The pilot aims to transform how children and young people with cancer receive treatment in the region and across North Wales, leading to reduction in travel, stress, and time away from home, school and family life and will complement existing services provided by local Paediatric Oncology Shared Care Units and Children’s Community Nursing Teams.
Hope for Tomorrow provide a fleet of mobile cancer care units that are used across the country to provide adult cancer care, however this is the first time one will be used to treat children and young people.
Around 600 children are treated for cancer in the North West region each year. Children, young people and their families across the North West of England face significant travel challenges to access specialist cancer care. Unlike adults, children and young people who are being treated for cancer must journey further due to the limited number of specialist centres. Families often travel hundreds of miles for treatment on multiple occasions. These journeys can place considerable time and financial pressures on families, with recent North West data showing an average monthly travel cost of £245 and an average one-way journey of 54 miles.
Nurses from the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and Alder Hey Children’s Foundation Trust oncology units will shortly begin delivering treatments on the specially purposed mobile unit placed in community settings across the North West Region. Selected chemotherapy and supportive treatments, which are typically administered in a day case clinic will be delivered closer to a patient’s home.
Claire O’Rourke, Managing Director of Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance, said: “Supporting your child through a cancer diagnosis and treatment is one of the hardest things a family may ever have to go through. Bringing vital treatment closer to families means they won’t have to travel for miles or worry about overnight accommodation costs. Instead, they can concentrate on being parents and keeping life as normal as possible. Our hope is that this mobile treatment unit can help make a difficult time a little bit easier and so we are proud to support the first service of this kind for children in the UK.”
Davina Hartley, Network Manager for the NWCCODN said: “The NWCCODN are proud to lead this innovative Care Closer to Home project which aims to reduce the travel burden for children with cancer and their families, improve equity of access, and address long waits at Paediatric Treatment Centre Daycase Units, issues identified by children themselves as critical to improving their care experience.”
Professor Bernadette Brennan, Paediatric Oncologist and Lead Cancer Clinician at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, said: “When you look at our RMCH oncology outpatients and daycase unit, you often see patients who have travelled more than 100 miles for a simple bolus chemotherapy treatment that takes only minutes. The new mobile unit will bring this care closer to home, reducing travel, cutting costs and significantly improving patients’ quality of life.”
Tina Seymour, Chief Executive at Hope for Tomorrow, said: “Hope for Tomorrow have been bringing cancer care closer to patients in their communities for two decades. Our mobile cancer care units help patients fit cancer care into their lives rather than having their lives dominated by it. Now we’re excited be a part of this project and to explore the impact that this could have for children, young people and their families.”
The nurses delivering the Care Closer To Home project bring a wealth of knowledge and experience from their work within the Paediatric Principal Treatment Centres, with comprehensive orientation and induction processes in place to ensure they are fully prepared for project delivery, service development, and the community‑based elements of the role.
The mobile cancer care unit will park in convenient locations assessed as safe and appropriate. Sites such as supermarkets and garden centres have been identified across the region.
The impact of care delivered in this way will be evaluated and presented to funders and those across the region responsible for providing care for children and young people with cancer. (See below for Evaluation overview) It is hoped that where a clear benefit can be demonstrated a more permanent solution may be agreed and put in place.
Aligned with the NHS 10 Year Plan and the National Cancer Plan, Care Closer to Home is a proof-of-concept project funded by the regional Cancer Alliances and currently funded until July 2026. The project will be evaluated to understand the impact upon children receiving treatment for cancer and their families.
