One of Bath Cancer Unit Support Group’s current projects is to raise £15,000 in order to fund a Paediatric Oncology Nursing Associate at the RUH who will visit paediatric patients at home or school every week to obtain monitoring blood counts and use the results to adjust treatment doses rather than the children having to visit the hospital. These children tend to have lengthy treatment plans and minimising hospital visits will avoid their schooling and normal lives being interrupted on such a regular basis and make a real difference to them.

A current Paediatric Oncology patient who is a member of the Creative Aquatic Swimming School at Frome mentioned this to the people there. This led to 155 of their members doing a sponsored ‘Swim to Space’ in a 15 metre pool, swimming 24,900 lengths (starting at 5am some mornings!) and covering the equivalent of the distance between the earth and space (100KM) with a target of raising £4,000. The children actually raised an incredible £35,339 funding the new nurse for almost
two and a half years.

Pictured are members of Creative Aquatic’s incredible fundraisers along with people from the Paediatric Oncology Department at the RUH and Bath Cancer Unit Support Group, with a very ‘big’ cheque.