6 minute read
Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation
The Institute of Chiropodists and Podiatrists
As we expand our partnerships and collaborations with other professional bodies and charities we would like to encourage members of both the Institute of Chiropodists and Podiatrists and the College of Foot health to nominate their favourite charity, so we can show our support to their work and commitment in raising awareness of health related conditions and diseases. The Nominated Charity will be promoted by our organisation for the next quarter featuring in our journal and online.
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Please nominate your charity by either writing to Head Office at:
The Institute of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, 150 Lord Street, Southport, Merseyside. PR9 0NP
or by email to julie@iocp.org.uk with the subject ‘Nominated Charity’, please include details of your chosen charity, a reason why you have nominated them, please also include your photo as nominee, as this will appear alongside the Charity Nomination Page in our January issue. The chosen Charity for October is the Roy Castle Foundation, see page 22.
NOVEMBER
5th
The final date for nominations to be received is 5th November, after this date a charity will be chosen at random for the next quarter.
The winning charity would be contacted to let them know that they have been nominated as our charity of the quarter, for their logo and information, and we will publish their information along with a link to where members and subscribers of Podiatry Review can donate to.
Hi Julie,
Lung cancer remains the main cause of death in the U.K. Roy Castle Charity helps and support not only in research, screening program in association with the NHS, treatments, with a view to improve life expectancy and quality of life. They also provide a global education element to the public, patients and their family affected by lung cancer. They aim to support people who are diagnosed with financial help, group counselling, and specialist nurse.
A talk was given at our branch meeting by Mrs Angela Massey who is the community fundraising Manager, which was excellent. I have contacted the members who were present at that meeting, the Vice-Chair and the Treasurer, and for all the reasons and points given above, we would like to bring Roy Castle our support. I have for some years been a volunteer in one of their shops to help raise money which I found most rewarding.
Michèle Allison
Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation
By Simon Malia
Lung cancer is the UK’s biggest cancer killer- every 15 minutes, someone in this country dies of it. It kills more people than breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers combined. Lung cancer is also a major health threat for women; it kills more women than breast and ovarian cancers combined.
So, why does this happen? There is a complex mix of reasons. Around 75% of people with lung cancer are not diagnosed until it is too late to offer curative treatment. Too few of us recognise and understand the key signs and symptoms of the disease, and often people have misconceptions about it. There is one basic fact to bear in mind: if you have lungs, you can get lung cancer. Many people still believe smoking is the only cause, whereas other factors include air pollution, expose to toxic chemicals, radon gas, and genetic changes. For many decades, lung cancer received far less funding for dedicated scientific research than other cancers.
These are the key challenges for the only one If you UK charity dedicated entirely to supporting have lungs, you people with all forms of lung cancer, Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. It can get lung has its roots in an idea first put forward cancer in 1990 by Professor Ray Donnelly, a thoracic surgeon at Liverpool’s Broadgreen Hospital. Prof Donnelly, heartsick of seeing patients with inoperable, incurable lung cancer, set up a charity known initially as the Lung Cancer Fund. One of its earliest achievements was to fund the first-ever dedicated lung cancer support nurse. Now, Lung Cancer Nurse Specialists are key members of lung oncology teams worldwide.
In 1993 Prof Donnelly proposed that the charity should aim to build to the world’s first centre dedicated specifically to lung cancer research. The following year, the much-loved entertainer
Roy Castle learned he was dying of lung cancer. Roy selflessly dedicated his final few months to raising funds for the research centre project. The public response to his immense courage was astounding. Following his death, the charity was renamed in his honour, and in 1997 the Roy Castle building was opened in Liverpool.
Nowadays, lung cancer research is carried out in laboratories and institutes worldwide, with data and resources from the Liverpool centre making significant contributions to this global effort. The charity now funds research projects across the UK, chiefly seeking ways to improve early detection of lung cancer or to improve the overall experience of patients affected by it.
Sadly, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths across the UK. Each year, it claims just under 35,000 lives - more than the total number lost to by breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers combined. Therefore, the work of Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation remains vitally important. Lung cancer can affect anyone at any time. While smoking remains the major causal risk factor, around 28% of all cases are not related to smoking. Anyone with lungs can get lung cancer. Survival rates remain stubbornly poor, mainly because the disease is too often detected at a point when curative treatment is no longer an option. Early diagnosis is the key to improving outcomes. Screening by means of low dose computed tomography (LDCT) can shift detection to an earlier stage and reduce lung cancer mortality in high-risk individuals.
Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation aims to see the introduction of a full national lung cancer screening programme, and the charity is working with the NHS to ensure this happens. A community project funded by the charity helped pave the way for the NHS Targeted Lung Health Check programme now being rolled out across England. This is designed to detect lung cancer even before symptoms appear, and will play a key part in the recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across the entire lung cancer pathway. The charity also funds essential research into early detection so people can be diagnosed at the earliest opportunity. New treatments mean people are living well for longer with incurable lung cancer, so the charity campaigns for more people to have access to life-lengthening treatments. The charity is represented on both the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), the bodies whose job is to determine which new treatments are made available to NHS patients. There are other key roles too. Being diagnosed with lung cancer can be both worrying and confusing. So, the charity provides a wide range of practical, emotional and financial support for everyone with lung cancer. The Foundation offers first-class independently audited information and support services for patients and families. It campaigns on behalf of people with lung cancer and to protect public health; raising awareness of the disease, its signs and symptoms, and issues that surround lung cancer,
28% of all cases are not related to smoking
It also offers a free nurse-led helpline for people with lung cancer, an online quit-support service for people who want to stop smoking, and being a major presence within the online lung cancer community via ‘Health Unlocked’,
Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation is the only UK charity that offers such a complete range of services, dedicated to helping and supporting all those affected by all forms of lung cancer. Those were its founding principles in 1990, and they remain firmly in place today.
