Patients are benefitting from a pioneering service that allows them to receive treatment for cancer in their workplace.
The service is delivered by nurses from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre – one of the UK’s leading networked cancer centres.
The initiative was launched earlier this year as part of Clatterbridge in the Community, which has been running for more than three years, and already sees suitable patients being treated at home with chemotherapy and other treatments.
The extension into the work place involves a highly-trained specialist chemotherapy nurse from the cancer centre visiting the patient and delivering their cancer treatment in a safe and suitable area. (Pictured is patient Glen Crisp at work with Staff Nurse Sarah O’Donnell).
Frances Yip, General Manager for Chemotherapy services at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our aim is to make the treatment journey as smooth as possible for all of our patients.
“Getting back to work is a really important part of this journey for many of our patients and we want to do everything we can to help them do that while they are still receiving vital treatment in a safe and comfortable environment.
“For some patients it can be a struggle and extra stress travelling to our clinics for treatment, particularly if they are back at work. Treatment at work is a great way to avoid that stress and help people continue their treatment and combine it with their lives in a stress-free way.
“We are still in the early phases and currently only offer this service to suitable patients receiving Herceptin (trastuzumab) or other treatments that delivered by sub-cut injection.”
Gerry Williams, 53, from Mossley Hill in Liverpool, was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2017.
She had a course of chemotherapy before a lumpectomy and then three weeks of radiotherapy.
Gerry was keen to get back to normal as soon as she could and that included her work as a senior librarian for children and young people in Knowsley.
So she was only too keen when she was offered the chance to get Herceptin injections at work.
Gerry said: “I think the service is a brilliant idea and I was very keen to get my treatment at work once I was ready to do so. My employers were really pleased and adamant I should do it. There were some checks with my line manager but my colleagues have been aware of what is happening all the way through my treatment and were really supportive of this next step.
“I think the main advantage is it doesn’t take you away from your normal day and stops you feeling like a patient. We spend so much time in the hospital with various appointments that this is a nice way of letting go of being in the hospital and feeling yourself again.”
Glen Crisp from Warrington received her Herceptin injections at M&J Seafood in Birchwood, Warrington, where she works in accounts.
Glen, 50, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2017, said: “My employers have been brilliant all the way through my treatment and were only too happy to help when I asked about getting treatment at work.
“It is great as I could get back to work straight after my injection whereas I used to lose a whole day every time I had to have treatment. It really helped make life normal again.”
The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre delivers more than 55,000 outpatient chemotherapy treatments every year, including those delivered in the community and at our nurse-led clinics held in seven district general hospitals across Merseyside and Cheshire, making this one of the most comprehensive networks of chemotherapy clinics in the UK.