'˜Wee Ross' helps start new isolation project

Site Foreman, Ross Patterson (7) calls the shots on site of the new isolation rooms being constructed at the Children's Cancer Unit at RBHSC. He is pictured with (L-R) Brian McGivern, Killowen Contracts, Peter McNaney, Chairman at Belfast HSC Trust and Felix Mooney, Chair of the Children's Cancer Unit Charity.

Work on two specialist isolation rooms which will increase the number of beds at the Children’s Cancer Unit has commenced thanks to funds raised by the Children’s Cancer Unit charity.

The unit will now have facilities to allow patients receiving treatment in GB to recover at home in Northern Ireland. The new rooms include Protection Isolation which will create an improved, clinically safer environment for the most medically vulnerable users of the unit.

Felix Mooney, Chair of the Children’s Cancer Unit charity said: “We’re delighted to be able to fund this new addition for the Children’s Cancer Unit here at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.

“The Children’s Cancer Unit was badly in need of more space and more beds and these rooms will go some way in tackling this issue. We want to ensure that this Unit, the only place in Northern Ireland where children with cancer can be treated, has the best possible facilities for the young patients.

“This development would not be possible without the extremely hard work of all our supporters who raised funds for the charity, and for that we are eternally grateful. We would also like to thank our builders, Killowen Contracts who are already doing some superb work in what is a very confined site.”

The Children’s Cancer Unit Charity was set up in 1984 to raise funds to build a dedicated cancer unit for children in NI. The Children’s Cancer Unit was established at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children in 1987 following a public campaign led by the charity. The Children’s Cancer Unit Charity continues to support the medical staff and the young patients who are treated at the Unit and their families.