BBC News, North East and Cumbria
GoogleA new £30m cancer research centre is set to be built in the North East, to enable more people to take part in clinical trials.
The centre is being funded by The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation – part of the Newcastle Hospitals Charity – with £20m towards its development already raised.
A fundraising campaign designed to raise the remaining £10m needed for the development of The Sir Bobby Robson Institute, as it will become known, is due to launch next year.
The director of the current trials research centre, Prof Ruth Plummer, said the new institute is vital, with the Freeman Hospital’s existing facility “at capacity”.
Speaking to BBC Radio Newcastle, she said: “It’s 16 years now since Sir Bobby opened the Bobby Robson unit, as we call it, and after about 10 years we got to the point where we’d actually grown and filled the space.
“We can’t physically get any more people in.”
‘Iconic building’
The new three-storey building will bring together the team at the current Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre, at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care, and the Freeman Hospital’s cancer and blood disorders research team.
The existing research centre was opened by the former Newcastle United manager in 2009.
Sir Bobby was diagnosed with cancer on a number of occasions throughout his life and died, aged 76, in the same year the centre was opened.
The NHS trust said the new institute would increase research activity by 50% over five years and lead to more complex, and larger, trials.
Its catchment area will cover 3.5m people living in the north east of England, Cumbria and North Yorkshire, but the Trust hopes its research could help cancer patients around the world.
Prof Plummer said the Trust had asked patients to participate in the new building’s design – to make sure it responds to patients’ needs.
“It will be a beautiful, iconic building,” said Prof Plummer, highlighting how the design will accommodate “the flow of patients”.
“They’ve looked at, and engaged in, designing something that will work – and make a bad time as good as we can make it for patients.”
Construction of the institute is expected to begin next year, with opening planned for 2028.
Members of the public who want to find out more about the proposals can share their views as part of a consultation being carried out at Trinity Christian Community Centre, in South Gosforth, on 8 July.
