A Rescue Mission Like No Other

loaded Google Translate on our phones which helped too. On the ground we had other interpreters, some of whom were volunteers.

In the first 12 weeks of the war, 949 patients were evacuated to 19 countries in Europe and North America, with Poland, Italy and Germany taking the largest proportion of children.

“Many units were co-operating and offering help. For the transfer in the UK, we had the amazing Southampton and Oxford Paediatric Retrieval Team – Intensive Care Doctors, Anaesthetists, Nurses and Technicians who are used to transporting critically ill children, including those needing ventilation. We also had two wonderful Interpreters, and from my hospital two incredible “Play and Youth Therapists”. Including the latter two raised some official eyebrows, but the clue is in the ‘Therapist’ part of their title. They specialise in helping children and young people cope with scary strange situations – and they were fantastic!

“Once in the UK, the ambulance service transferred the children from the airport. A suitable central hotel near the airport and close to the motorway network was taken over. Hot food was available for the children, their parents and siblings. A team of Doctors, Nurses and Administration Staff from Birmingham Children’s hospital were based in the hotel. All the children were examined by a doctor and any immediate health needs identified. One child became unwell overnight and was admitted directly to hospital.

Dr Martin English (1981), Clinical Lead for Oncology at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, tells us about his involvement in the transfer of Ukrainian families with children suffering from cancer to hospitals across the UK.

One Friday evening in early March, Dr Martin English received a text from his Chief Medical Officer, asking what capacity he had to take additional patients into Birmingham Children’s Hospital, as some children with cancer needed to be transferred urgently from Ukraine. Nine days, several hundred emails and quite a lot of “Teams” meetings later, Dr English and his colleagues from across the UK boarded a plane to Poland.

The plight of Ukrainian Children with cancer prompted efforts from medical staff, charities, hotels, translators, train and bus companies, air crews, the NHS in all four home nations and UK Government departments, resulting in the mobilisation of Paediatric Oncology centres ready to take seriously ill children and their families, as Dr English told us:

“The global network dealing with cancer in children is very strong and includes organisations across Europe and the USA. The Ukrainian Children’s Cancer Centres were sending convoys of children and family members to safe places for treatment – mainly Poland. It was rapidly clear that the Polish Health Service could not accept a doubling of patient numbers overnight and it was necessary to move children quickly to units where they could be treated in other countries as well. Within the first week of the war, the Global Outreach Programme from St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis Tennessee set up ‘The Unicorn Clinic’ to triage the convoys when they arrived. They partnered with the European Society of Paediatric Oncology and Parents’ Organisations to send messages to the larger children’s cancer units across Europe asking if they could take some patients.

“To get to the UK we needed to sort out visas etc., and arrange to fly the families over, which was co-ordinated nationally, with Government departments, the NHS in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and individual children’s cancer units, as well as many other official and charitable organisations collaborating to make it happen. It was arranged for the UK to take one convoy and we flew over to Poland. The children and their families were taken to the airport by bus and we took over their care from there. Dr Martin English (back row, 3rd from right)

“Overnight we identified suitable children’s cancer treatment centres for the transfer of the patients, bearing in mind their likely needs over the next few months, and wanting to keep the families in groups so that there was some mutual support.

“The next morning ambulances from the areas to which the children were going started arriving to transfer children and their families to their local children’s cancer units. This involved the latter working with their Local Authorities to arrange accommodation and support and review the children so they could continue straight away with their treatment.

From that first text in March from his Chief Medical Officer, to relocating and treating the children, Dr English recognised the extraordinary nature of this situation, saying “I can safely say that I have not been involved in anything like this before.”

ABOUT DR MARTIN ENGLISH (1981)

Having left the College after 5th year in 1980, Dr English studied Medicine at the University of Dundee and Paediatric Oncology at the University of Newcastle. He has worked in Glasgow, Durham, Cardiff and Birmingham, having been a Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital for 21 years.

Having always been interested in Paediatrics, after getting some experience in General Medicine and A&E, his first Paediatric job included working in the regional Children’s Cancer Unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle. He had intended to be a Neonatologist, but the specialty fascinated him and when he got the opportunity to do some research in Newcastle, he was hooked.

How many children do you treat on an annual basis at Birmingham Children’s Hospital?

“My unit gets about 250 new patients a year. I specialise in Neuro-oncology – brain and spinal tumours. We have about 50 new cases a year and myself and two other colleagues manage them between us.”

How does the treatment of childhood cancer differ from that of an adult?

“Firstly, you need to understand that the cancers are different. Most adult cancers are the result of wear and tear in tissues that are exposed to the environment in one way or another over the years.

“Children’s cancers are usually due to random genetic accidents in organs and tissues that were growing and developing normally. Children can tolerate more intensive treatment than adults. Even when there is advanced disease, cure is often possible.

“We integrate the use of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy with the aim of maximum cure with minimum side-effects.”

What advice would you give to a young OA, or even a Senior School pupil who is interested in a career in Paediatric Oncology?

“Firstly, get some experience of the specialty. Ask for an attachment. Volunteer in a hospital treating children with cancer. Find out about charities that support children with cancer and their families.

“Once qualified in Medicine look for an appropriate training rotation. A Paediatric Oncologist is a trained Paediatrician who has also been trained in the diagnosis and chemotherapy treatment of children with cancer. A Paediatric Haematologist has gone down a more adult based route but has experience of treating leukaemia in children (and other non-malignant conditions), and will also do some diagnostic laboratory work.

“A Paediatric Surgeon may have sub-specialised in managing some of the tumours occurring in childhood, but will treat non-cancerous conditions as well.

“A Clinical Oncologist treats patients with radiotherapy. Some sub-specialise in paediatric conditions, but will usually spend more than half of their time treating cancer that occurs in adults. They will use chemotherapy in adults and young people, but not in children.”

Over your career, you must have seen great improvements. What are the success rates nowadays compared to when you first started?

“When I first walked on a Paediatric Oncology ward in 1989, the five-year survival from diagnosis for all children’s cancer was just over 60%. Today it is over 80%.”