Yahoo News Prince William follows in Diana's footsteps at Royal Marsden cancer centre
The Duke of Cambridge followed in his mother’s footsteps by marking the start of construction of a new state-of-the-art cancer research centre.
He applied the finishing touches to the foundation stone of the Oak Cancer Centre at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, 30 years after Diana, Princess of Wales did the same for a new wing at the Royal Marsden in Chelsea.
The new centre will place over 400 researchers under the same roof as patients, helping to accelerate the development of new treatments.
After meeting patients and staff, the duke said in a speech: “Every time I visit the Marsden, I am struck not just by the significant advances that are being made in research and treatment, but also by the hope and belief embodied by each patient and member of staff, even in the darkest of times.
“I am personally delighted to be with you today to lay the foundation stone of the Oak Centre, thirty years after my mother did the very same thing at The Royal Marsden in Chelsea, commemorating the building of the Chelsea Wing.”
Acknowledging the “unimaginable challenges that all those at the Marsden have faced this year”, he said: “The knock on effects of coronavirus have been felt widely, but the impact on cancer treatment for patients up and down the country has been one of the most acute and challenging.”
The duke said the private phase of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity’s appeal, which he launched in 2015, had raised £62 million out of a target of £70 million.
The new centre would, he said, “bring together some of the world’s best minds to develop new treatments to save and improve the lives of cancer patients throughout the UK and around the world”.
He added: “Despite the challenging times we are living in, it is so important we take the time to acknowledge the tremendous work that continues all around us. And that irrespective of the global pandemic, there remains hope for the many thousands of people dealing with the effects of cancer.”
The duke met young cancer patients William Blake, 11, and Lily Smith, 15, in a conversation which ranged from the Incredible Hulk to the relative merits of Love Island and pizza.
Lily, from Bookham, Surrey, said: “He was very interested in my and William’s stories, and was asking how treatment went. He was very admiring of what we had been through. It meant a lot to hear it, especially from someone like the duke.”
Her mother, Natalie Baxter, 48, said: “He said it was a big thing that had happened in their young lives, and they should pat themselves on the back.”
Lily’s cancer was diagnosed in July 2019 after she showed a mother a large lump on her collar bone.
Ms Baxter, 48, a police officer, said: “She said, ‘Look, Mum.’ I said, ‘You look like the Hulk!’”
She added: “When we were first in hospital we could not believe this was happening.” They went in for tests, and assumed they would go home again that night. Instead Lily spent the next week in hospital.”
Lily said: “Before we were told there was a possibility that I might have cancer, we were going to go home. It was, ‘What do you want for dinner?’ ‘Yeah, pizza, just stick on Love Island.’”
The duke, however, was not such a fan. Ms Baxter said: “He laughed, and I think he fancied the pizza, but not Love Island. He said, ‘We won’t go there.’”
The duke also met patients Anna Selo and Julie Balkwill. Ms Balkwill, 65, from Wallington, Surrey, told the duke she had been living with cancer for 18 years. She said: “I had five years of chemotherapy. The chemo wasn’t working, so… I went on a trial drug in 2007. I haven’t looked back. I’ve had a few hiccups in between, but I am still on the drug. It is keeping me alive. I have never the lost the cancer, it has always been in me, but you live with it.”
During that time, she said, “I saw two children get married, and six grandchildren come into the world, which I would not have done if I had not been on the trial drug. They keep me on my toes.”
She said the duke told her it was important for the new unit to be built, “so that new drugs can be developed to fight cancer, to give people hope”.
Professor James Larkin, consultant medical oncologist, said the new centre was needed to bring researchers and clinicians together. “My goal would be that in 15 years’ time as consequence of research undertaken in the Oak Centre Centre I can say to my patients that we have effective therapies to stop cancer spreading in the first place. And if it were to spread, that I can realistically talk about cure for the majority of patients.”
At the end of the speeches the duke took a trowel to do the pointing for the foundation stone. James Davies, operations director for contractors ISG, said: “I told him he wouldn’t make a bricklayer. He agreed!”
