ROCKY APPEAL

The Portsmouth Hospitals Rocky Appeal is setting out to raise £2,000,000 to build a Unique Cancer Laboratory at Queen Alexandra Hospital.

This laboratory will have the potential to revolutionise anti-cancer treatment. It is proposed to initially concentrate on breast cancer, ovarian cancer, skin cancer, bowel cancer, testicular cancer and cancer of the oesophagus. This new Unique Cancer Laboratory will be of great benefit to very many patients and their families faced with this dreadful disease. It will be something that potential cancer patients will be forever grateful, for giving them the quality and quantity of life that every cancer patient deserves. The appeal has so far managed to raise £150,000 and is trying all ways to raise the remainder as soon as possible.

Why we need the Cancer Laboratory

Cancer is a very complex disease, which needs treatment tailored to each patient's individual needs. Treatment may include surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy. The number of drugs used for cancer chemotherapy is growing rapidly and many of the new drugs are more effective than the older ones, but not in every case!

The new Cancer Laboratory will provide an improved cancer testing service to patients. It will be a centre for research as well as clinical excellence.

It will enable us to individualise cancer treatment and so give a better future for cancer patients.

Tailor -made Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the option for many tumours. The anti-cancer drugs used are improving all the time, but many have nasty side effects. As our understanding of cancer grows, new anti-cancer drugs are being produced with greater specificity and fewer side effects. Some are proving to be spectacularly successful in the clinic and there are great hopes for a revolution in cancer treatment within the next few years. However, these drugs will not benefit everyone. We need to select treatment carefully for each patient, and that is where the new Cancer Laboratory will give patients the best possible chance of successful treatment.

Reasons for Helping

 Cancer can affect anyone, and most people have someone close to them who has experienced it.

 Cancer is not a single disease - in fact even cancers of the same type can behave very differently in different patients.

 The outcome depends on the type of cancer, how far it has spread and how well the cancer responds to treatment.

 Many cancers can be cured - such as childhood cancers, testicular cancer in men and some skin cancers. We want to spread this success to other types of cancer! Also chemotherapy can reduce the chances of more common cancers like breast cancer and bowel cancer from coming back after an operation. We want to increase the chances of this happening too!

 Treatment is getting better - some cancers that commonly killed patients rapidly 20 years ago are now curable!

We can now test cancers to find out which treatment is appropriate to individual cases. This needs a sophisticated laboratory to replace existing facilities.

 Time is short - any help you can give will be of great benefit to many people.

To make a donation, please send your cheque or postal order made payable to "Portsmouth Hospitals Rocky Appeal" to:

Mick Lyons BEM, Appeals Co-ordinator, Appeals Office, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Cosham, Portsmouth, PO6 3LY, or telephone 023 9228 6487 to talk to Mick Lyons in the first instance.

You will always receive a written receipt for your donation.