TMCnet News
Survivor Chris backs children's cancer centre [Newcastle Journal (England)](Newcastle Journal (England) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) THE chairman of a North East charity has spoken of his own battle with childhood cancer as he backs a pioneering fund for the disease. Chris Peacock, who heads the North of England Children's Cancer Research charity, survived a Wilms' tumour in his kidney when he was just four years old in the late 1970s. Now his charity is one of the partners behind the Future Fund which aims to raise Pounds 5.5m to establish the Newcastle University Centre for Childhood Cancer, a state-of-the-art resource where researchers and clinicians can advance their work to develop new treatments with fewer side ePounds ects. "You don't read many stories of childhood cancer survivors who have had the all-clear for 35 years but I am a living case study," said Chris, of Tynemouth in North Tyneside. "It's comforting for parents of children battling through their illness to talk to me as I am living proof of successful treatment and I enjoy telling them how much I love life and how I make the most of every moment. "I do think it has shaped who I am today. I feel I was given a second chance to experience the world and I squeeze everything I can out of my life." " Major advances have been made in children's cancer since Chris's diagnosis in 1974, along with improvements in public awareness, attitudes and funding for research.is progress is in part down to the work of a group of parents - including Chris's mum and dad - who helped establish the NECCR to fundraise for children's cancer in response to their own experience of the disease. e NECCR went on to raise Pounds 20m for research in Newcastle, helping to establish Newcastle University's Northern Institute for Cancer Research. Now the charity has embarked on a new chapter as a partner in the Future Fund along with Newcastle University and Newcastle Hospital's Great North Children's Hospital. Chris, who is managing director at family thrm Peacock's Medical Group, said: "It's impossible to compare the way we think about children's cancer now to back when I was diagnosed but it is important not to fool ourselves into thinking there isn't still along road ahead. "In the 1970s, children's cancer wasn't talked about, it was almost a taboo subject. My mother had to be quite persistent with the doctors at the time because cancer was such a rarity. "ere wasn't a lot of funding directed at children's cancer research, there weren't very many professors specialising in it and it was treated as a sideline of adult cancer. "ankfully we now know that this isn't the right approach because childhood cancers need to be treated very diPounds erently. "I was very young but I do distinctly remember being very frightened. It was an adult facility and children weren't catered for the way they are now. "When I was receiving treatment I was locked in a room with a machine over the top of me and lots of people were looking in at me through a glass window. over the top of me and lots of people were looking in at me through a glass window. "I have memories of children not coming back from treatments. It was very common to make friends and then thnd out they had died. ere was a lot of sorrow in that place." coming back from treatments. It was very common to make friends and then thnd out they had died. ere was a lot of sorrow in that place." " Last week Chris handed over Pounds 500,000 to the Future Fund on behalf of the is an incredible opportunity to create a world- class children's cancer research facility. " Last week Chris handed over Pounds 500,000 to the Future Fund on behalf of the NECCR. He said: is is an incredible opportunity to create a world-class children's cancer research facility. "It will benetht society as a whole because the work doesn't just take place in a lab. Researchers and clinicians will be working with live case studies who will be among the thrst to benetht from their expertise. "It will benetht society as a whole because the work doesn't just take place in a lab. Researchers and clinicians will be working with live case studies who will be among the thrst to benetht from their expertise. "We are once again appealing to the public to dig deep to help us "We are once again appealing to the public to dig deep to help us achieve something incredible - this will have local, national and global impact. "North East people will have access to the best facilities, not only in the UK, but in the world, and the progress will be felt on an international level." " How to donate: online via the Just Giving page found at www.futurefund.co.uk, by calling 0191 208 7250, by texting NCFF01 and the amount of your donation to 70070, or in person ate Journal, ompson House, Groat Market, Newcastle. Get involved on Facebook / futurefundnewcastle, on Twitter @FutureFund-NCL and use the hashtag #NCLFF. For more information on the NECCR please visit www.neccr.org.uk (c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |