Kibworth charity, GEMS, has given an incredibly valuable festive boost of £125,000 to Leicester Hospitals Charity’s Christmas Appeal.
Leicester Hospitals Charity is raising £600,000 for six brand-new chemotherapy treatment bays at Leicester Royal Infirmary and to transform a currently unused balcony into a new treatment area. It will also fund the refurbishment of the existing Chemotherapy Suite to an equally high standard.
The gift of £125,000 from Kibworth-based charity GEMS, which has been tirelessly raising funds to make this project a reality, brings the total raised for the Christmas Appeal to £200,000.
Louise Jones, Head of Philanthropy at Leicester Hospitals Charity, said: “This is a very exciting project for Leicester Hospitals Charity and when we found out the chemotherapy suite needed more spaces in order to treat more people, we spoke to Gems and said ‘Let’s do this together, let’s make this part of our Christmas appeal this year’ and to be able to be here today to accept a cheque for £125,000 from Gems is just fantastic.”
Andy Anderson, who founded GEMS Charity alongside his wife Sally, said: “GEMS Charity are a local Leicestershire charity. It was started almost ten years ago now by my wife Sally after four friends of ours, Gilly, Elizabeth, Meg and Sarah, were diagnosed with cancer. Sally spent many hours down the Leicester Royal Infirmary in the chemo suite and decided some of the things that were down there probably weren’t as nice as they could be to help the patients through the time they were going through there so Sally decided we were going to raise some money to make them feel a little bit better.
Consultant Professor Samreen Ahmed, says people will help to save lives by supporting the charity’s appeal:
“What we need urgently is more chairs to treat more patients and save more lives. Please, if you can, make a gift this Christmas, to secure a new chair for the chemotherapy suite.
“This chair will help save the lives of many people living with cancer in our area and we look forward to more end of treatment bells being rung, directly as a result of the generosity of people across our community.”
Last year, 7,600 people were diagnosed with cancer in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. The Chemotherapy Suite at the Osborne Building at the Leicester Royal Infirmary has been in operation for over 20 years.
Over the past two decades, many new cancer treatments have been developed and delivered through immunotherapy and chemotherapy. While this has been excellent news for cancer patients, it means that the Leicester Royal Infirmary does not have the space to treat the number of patients in a timely manner. Therefore, patients have to wait longer for treatment, with delays impacting their quality of life.
The success of the Chemotherapy Suite Appeal will allow almost 4,000 more treatments to be given each year and reduce waiting times.
Anyone wanting to make a gift to the Chemotherapy Suite Christmas Appeal can do so now at LHCharity.org.uk/Christmas, or by calling 0116 258 8709.
