Liam Herbert
Liam and Nick's SAHARA DESERT TREK page
Fundraising for Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity
Story
So it looks like we will be trekking 100km across the Sahara desert ...
All money raised will go towards the VIP treatment fund which supports children and young adults with cancer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. With your support we can continue to go the extra mile to support young people undergoing radiotherapy. This includes end of treatment gifts for children and young people who have finished their radiotherapy and special blankets that keep the children warm during their treatment.
Often patients will need daily radiotherapy for six weeks, with some of the younger patients requiring a daily anaesthetic for us to be able to deliver this treatment. This will also mean that some patients would have to travel over two hours to attend their radiotherapy appointment each time. However, with your support we can help go the extra mile into supporting these young people and their families.
With the kind donations we have been able to provide the materials for a volunteer to make a blanket for each patient to keep them warm whilst they are having their radiotherapy treatment where the treatment units need to be kept at a cool temperature. The patients are then able to take their blanket home after they have finished their treatment to keep them warm during their follow up scans. We also provide the funding for the materials and an artist to help personalise and decorate radiotherapy masks to help reduce a child's anxiety around treatment. They get their very own superhero mask!
The charity also supports those families who have a long distance to travel each day by provide self-catered apartments that are nearby the hospital at no extra cost for the families; a home from home. At times, this has prevented a hospital admission for patients who are well enough to be at home but the travel would have been too much. We also give each child and young person a gift at the end of treatment and this video just sums this up: https://twitter.com/LiamHerbert_/status/1014837963275079681?t=MBzvaJ4izd2YXNGaJ_1GFA&s=19
Our target is to reach £15,000 as this year we would like to be able to fund the Little Linac project (a lego-style radiotherapy machine). A few years ago IPEM helped fund the design and initial order for this project that so each child and young person would get a free Little Linac. ‘Little Linac’ kits provided free of charge to patients | NUH
These have really supported those patients where building a rapport has been challenging as well as those children who have been really anxious. These are also very popular amongst the older children as a reward for achieving milestones in their treatment. We will also plan to donate these units to the smaller hospitals who also treat children and young people but may not be fortunate enough to achieve the charity backing.
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