A Whole New Way
Welcome to the seventh newsletter from the
Cambridge Children's Hospital project
The Whole Picture
An update from Project Director, Alex White
An update from Project Director, Alex White
The first few months of 2022 have been very productive for the Cambridge Children’s Hospital project.
Our plans to design and build the East of England’s first dedicated children’s hospital took a big step forward when planning permission was granted for the new building on 16th March.
You can read more about this on our website and will find images of some of the designs below, including those of the proposed outdoor spaces, gardens, courtyards and terraces.
Our Children’s Network played a pivotal role in helping develop the early designs. It’s been wonderful to see the children’s reactions to the designs that were submitted to Cambridge City Council for planning permission in October. One member, Tristan, age 11, said: “I did a design programme with a group of people who help design the hospital. At the end they showed us what the outside of the hospital will look like. There were bits of greenery inside the hospital, right in the centre, and I knew I had something to do with that. It made me feel proud.”
Our next step is to finalise the more detailed drawings of the individual rooms within the hospital. This work is already underway, and involves both staff and patients contributing to the design.
We’re also making great strides with our fundraising campaign, which was announced in 2021, and which has a target of £100 million to help build the hospital.
Meanwhile, work continues on developing our Outline Business Case, which has to be approved by NHS England and Improvement and the Department of Health and Social Care. This will be a big milestone for the Project so watch this space.
With best wishes for the months ahead.
Alex
An external view of the new hospital
An external view of the new hospital
An open air courtyard
An open air courtyard
The 'Integration Hub' is at the heart of the hospital
The 'Integration Hub' is at the heart of the hospital
The front entrance to Cambridge Children's Hospital
The front entrance to Cambridge Children's Hospital
The Whole Community
Getting creative for Cambridge Children's Hospital
Artist Harold Offeh has been working with children, young people, parents and carers to explore the science and ideas behind Cambridge Children’s Hospital, including genomics, integration and art. This has been done through online workshops, with art packs posted out to participants, but more recently through a series of family-focused sessions for Cambridge Festival. This all-day extravaganza, held at Cambridge Junction, was our first face-to-face event in over two years.
Building relationships with voluntary and community organisations
In February, we hosted a Third Sector Forum, which was a great opportunity to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones with voluntary and community organisations across the East of England. Many of these have sent in letters of support for us to submit with our Outline Business Case. If your organisation would like to do the same, please email anna.todd@cpft.nhs.uk. You can find a letter template here.
Next-stage Design Workshops
We welcomed back a number of familiar faces - and some new ones - to help us with the next stage of our designs for Cambridge Children's Hospital. During our March workshop, our Design Champions shared their ideas for the outside spaces, based on their own lived experience. Our artist, Merlin Evans, has been recording their suggestions in a series of beautiful images.
Cambridge Children's Press Pack
Our Press Pack was set up to give media-savvy young people an opportunity to tell their story, and ours, through video, audio and written content. Recently, 13-year-old Macie interviewed Dr Patrick Tarpey from the East Genomics Laboratory Hub about a new cancer trial. She is particularly interested in this as her younger brother has a rare cancer. You can watch Macie's brilliant interview here.
I really enjoyed interviewing Dr Tarpey. It was great to learn about the genome sequencing as it is similar to the trial that my brother Oliver is on.
We are very proud of the videos and articles that our Press Pack have been working on. Do take a look at the work produced by Macie, Sarah, Alisha, and Hannah.
Artist Harold Offeh working with a young participant at our Cambridge Festival arts event
Artist Harold Offeh working with a young participant at our Cambridge Festival arts event
Members of Cambridge Children's Network have been exploring the arts and science behind the new hospital, with colourful results
Members of Cambridge Children's Network have been exploring the arts and science behind the new hospital, with colourful results
A vision for food, with care
Our 'Food, with Care' conference was the first stage in developing our vision for food at Cambridge Children's Hospital. Over 80 healthcare delegates, as well as a number of parents and carers, joined the day-long virtual event, with a wide variety of expert speakers. You can dip into our conference pack to watch the talks and find out more. Members of Cambridge Children's Network took part in a video, thinking about their experiences of food in hospital and what could be better.
The Whole Child
Lily tells her story for Rare Disease Day
At the heart of the new Cambridge Children's hospital, a Global Genome Institute will work to improve diagnosis and treatment for even the rarest conditions. Thirteen-year-old Lily, a member of Cambridge Children's Network, was two and a half when she was diagnosed with Mitochondrial Disease. Her younger sister Willow has the same condition.
Mitochondrial Disease means that the mitochondria in the cells - a bit like a power supply - are not producing enough energy. This means the body struggles to thrive. Everyone is affected differently.
“We call the girls healthily unhealthy. They have this rare disease, but they are managing okay."
Lily on her 13th birthday
Lily on her 13th birthday
The Whole Life
New hope for treatment of infant cancer
A rare blood cancer, curable in most children except infants under the age of one, has baffled doctors for decades. This has led to little improvement in the treatments available.
But a recent breakthrough has found subtle differences in the cell type that causes B acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL) which may help to explain why some cases are more severe than others.
"As well as generating new drug targets, these data will allow us to observe how the ‘cell type’ of certain cancers corresponds to patient outcomes, allowing us to better assess disease severity and determine the best course of treatment.”
Looking ahead
We are incredibly grateful to The Festival of Suffolk (14th May) and the Cambridgeshire County Day (23rd June) for choosing to support Cambridge Children's Hospital at their Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations later this year. Both of these events are open to the public and promise to be great fun for all ages.
Held at Newmarket Racecourse, we will have a stand at both events with a model of the new hospital on display. This will be a good opportunity to find out more about our vision and plans, as well as take part in some fun activities. We hope to see you there!
Throughout 2022, we will be running more workshops and events for children, young people, parents and carers to have their say on how the new hospital should look, feel and care. The best way to get involved is to join Cambridge Children's Network, so you are the first to hear about opportunities.
Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook @CambChildrens. Visit our website www.cambridgechildrens.org.uk
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