MOBILE HEALTHCARE PROVISION


In some cases, once initial consultations and first treatments have taken place, mobile cancer care units allow for the removal of hospital visits for all of a patient’s treatments.


for treatment, knowing this kind of support is available makes all the difference.”


The ‘worst year of her life’ When retired teacher, Elaine Day, 67, was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer during the pandemic in August 2020, it marked what she describes as ‘the start of the worst year of my life’. Struggling with the sudden loss of her father during COVID, she then found herself becoming her mother’s carer. Then swiftly followed the results of her biopsy, when she had to quickly make alternative arrangements for her mother’s care while she began chemotherapy. In November 2020, after the third round of treatment at Airedale General Hospital, she was relieved to hear that she no longer had to make the hour round trip from her rural home in Hellifield in the Yorkshire Dales, and could instead continue the treatment on board a Hope for Tomorrow MCCU operating in Settle, her neighbouring village.


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Tina Seymour and Hope for Tomorrow


Tina Seymour joined Hope for Tomorrow in 2015 as head of Operations, before becoming CEO in 2019, heading up the team that develops and maintains its relationships with NHS partners, maintaining the charity’s fleet of vehicles, and overseeing the build of new Mobile Cancer Care Units. Utilising her background in local government, she is responsible for corporate issues – including strategic planning, risk management and policy development, finance, governance, and HR.


Hope for Tomorrow designed and launched what it says was the world’s first


mobile chemotherapy unit in February 2007, inspired by its late founder, Christine Mills. The charity is ‘an enabler of better quality cancer care’, providing an alternative to traditional hospital-based cancer treatments. Its main objectives are to mobilise cancer care into the community with its mobile units, and to increase capacity and improve cancer care provision with temporary units at hospitals.


42 Health Estate Journal March 2022


Patient, John Rendell, receiving treatment on one of the mobile cancer care units.


I found it much more relaxed and contained on the bus; some of the nurses I already knew… It was a much more personal experience – just being asked if I wanted a cup of tea with a tin of biscuits on hand helped


A ‘much better experience’ Elaine Day said: “I was really pleased when I was informed about the option of receiving treatment on the unit, nearer to home. The experience was so much better and less stressful. I had received a parking ticket during a visit for chemo at Airedale Hospital a few weeks before, and reluctantly paid the fine as I had no time to appeal it with everything going on. It just compounded the whole situation. As trivial as it may sound, removing the parking issue made things easier, as it was one less thing to have to deal with.


“I found it much more relaxed and


contained on the bus; some of the nurses I already knew from my treatment on the haematology and oncology day (HODU) unit at Airedale, so it definitely helped. It was a much more personal experience – just being asked if I wanted a cup of tea with a tin of biscuits on hand helped.”


An unexpected and unwelcome turn In March 2021, however, her cancer journey took an unexpected, almost fatal turn. In theatre, where she was just about to have her scheduled mastectomy, she suffered an allergic reaction to the anaesthetic, went into anaphylactic shock, and stopped breathing. She was placed in a medically induced coma for four days and had a pipe inserted in her chest. She made a recovery, but the emotional and mental trauma of her ordeal remained. She adds: “When I finally had the mastectomy, although the operation was successful, my anxiety levels went through the roof. I couldn’t bear being in hospital; every time I heard the sound of wheeled trollies down a hospital corridor, I was convinced I was going to die. I underwent counselling, where I was diagnosed with PTSD.” She has since resumed visits to the unit, where she receives an injection of Herceptin every three weeks. She said: “Since suffering with PTSD I am so glad I am visiting the bus instead of the hospital; it means I can cope a lot better with the situation. I would actually say that the Hope for Tomorrow Mobile Cancer Care Unit is a necessity, especially for those who are generally scared of visiting hospital. Long live the bus.”


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