Hospital and Macmillan in cancer tie-up scheme

The team-working arrangement came as Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust backed World Cancer Day.

The Union for International Cancer Control, which seeks to integrate cancer control into the world health and development agenda, said researchers believe next year alone almost nine million people are likely to die of cancer and, left unchecked, the number of deaths will increase to 13 million per year by 2030.

One in two people born after 1960 in the UK will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in their lifetime but with the life-changing advances in research over the past 40 years, survival has doubled.

Today, one in two people survive their cancer for at least 10 years. The national ambition is to accelerate this progress so that within 20 years three in four people survive their cancer.

Deborah Loftus, lead cancer nurse for Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are really excited about a recent development at the Trust – we will be working closely in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support and other key partners to further support those living with and beyond cancer.

“Over the next two years a designated Macmillan employee will be working closely with patients, their families and clinical staff to implement new initiatives to transform ways of patient follow-up and recovery.

“This will involve listening closely to patients and their families and feeding back to organisations to support learning and transformational change.”

World Cancer Day was established by the Paris Charter adopted at the World Summit Against Cancer for the New Millennium in February 2000.

The charter promotes research for curing as well as preventing the disease, upgrading services for patients and mobilising the global community against cancer.