Hope for Tomorrow is delighted to be attending Oncology Professional Care 2024. As a charity that provides mobile cancer care units to NHS Trusts across the country, it’s an opportunity for attendees to find out more about how we are leading the way in bringing prevention, screening, and aftercare, as well as treatment, to patients in a mobile setting.

This is with the aim of making cancer care services more accessible and convenient for everyone.  We want to make more of a difference in the whole cancer pathway.

An example of one of our units will be at the event so please come and see us on stand E12 where one of the team will happily give you a tour as well as answer any questions you may have. We’ll also have literature available to take away from stand F10.

Oncology patient requirements differ  depending where you are in the country. Specific regional challenges, health inequalities and the needs of cancer patients vary and we are committed to working with NHS Trusts to identify how our units can best help to address these. No one unit is exactly the same, they can be built based on specific requirements.

Where in your community does the unit need to go to make sure it reaches the people that need it most? While treatment is one part of the cancer pathway, are screening and complimentary therapies also services that you’d benefit from? By answering these questions, in collaboration with you, we can build a unit that is best going to meet your needs.

Being able to easily access cancer treatment is something that should be afforded to every cancer patient. But for those who live hours away from a hospital, long travel times and poor transport links can cause a huge amount of stress. This means more precious time spent away from home and not being able to do things that patients love, or the increased financial anxiety that comes with not being able to work.

And if the barriers are too great, in some instances, patients are making the decision not to have treatment at all.

“We have 12 units, 11 nurse support vehicles and work with nine NHS Trusts across the country. Last year alone the units allowed the NHS to deliver nearly 30,000 treatments in local communities,” comments Leanda Bickley, Head of Fleet and Partnerships at Hope for Tomorrow. “But in an ideal world, every Trust in the country would have one. Not only do they help improve access to cancer treatment, they address health inequalities which would might otherwise prevent someone from being diagnosed or receiving treatment. Thanks to our units, which we rely solely on fundraising to supply and keep moving, more cancer patients are being screened, treated and receive aftercare in their communities, reaching those who need it most, while helping to increase capacity in stretched hospitals.”