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PRIVACY
Economic Development

Capacity to increase at Queen Elizabeth Hospital centre

The Centre for Clinical Haematology to be boosted by £1.5m fundraising campaign led by former Wolves footballer Geoff Thomas

Professor of haematology Charlie Craddock (left) and Geoff Thomas outside the Centre for Clinical Haematology at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Selly Oak

Plans for a major increase in capacity at the Centre for Clinical Haematology (CCH) at the in has been unveiled.

As a result of a 400 per cent growth in patient referrals since it opened in 2006, the CCH has outgrown its capacity.

In order drive forward access to innovative therapies, the patient footprint will be doubled at the centre at a cost of £1.5 million.

The money will pay for more research nurses, capacity to deliver more clinical trials, potential to deliver stem cell transplant to outpatients, novel new treatments and drugs and dramatically improved patient experience.

Geoff Thomas, the former Wolves and Crystal Palace footballer and patron of Cure Leukaemia, via a gruelling charity cycling event next July called Le Tour - One Day Ahead.

The challenge involves cycling the Tour de France route before the real event, covering more than 3,300 km over three weeks.

Mr Thomas was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia in 2003 and despite, being given less than three months to live, has been in remission since 2005 following treatment from Charlie Craddock, professor of haemotology at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The news was announced at a special parliamentary reception hosted by John Baron MP, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer.