Meet Janet Webb, who has been receiving treatment for a rare form of blood cancer for three years, and relies on Milton Keynes University Hospital to ensure that she remains in the best health possible. Every single week without fail, she comes to the hospital’s Macmillan Unit to receive transfusions of blood and platelets.
She suffers from myeloproliferative neoplasm, a blood cancer that occurs when the body’s bone marrow fails.
‘Without these transfusions, I wouldn’t be here, so I am immensely grateful to all the staff who care so tirelessly for me. I have got to know them really well, as you might expect,’ says Janet, from Stony Stratford. ‘The cancer team have become like family and I even got involved when they were testing out new treatment chairs so that I could give them some input from the patient’s point of view.’
Janet is looking forward to continuing her weekly treatments in the new purpose-built Cancer Centre when it opens in December 2019.
‘It will be wonderful to be in a brand new building specially designed for cancer treatments. My transfusions can take up to 10 hours so it is a very long day for me. It will be lovely to be able to sit and look out onto a courtyard with plants and flowers while I am having my transfusions.’
She is keen to encourage the people of Milton Keynes and surrounding areas to consider fundraising for the Cancer Centre Appeal, which needs to raise £2.5m to ensure the project is completed to the highest standards possible. Janet has helped with fundraising herself, raising money at her housing complex, Stony Stratford Conservative Club, and her daughter Maxine’s pub darts team.
‘Even a small donation mounts up. Nearly every one of us is affected by cancer in some way and this new Cancer Centre is a really important step for Milton Keynes,’ she adds.
If you would like to donate or fundraise for us, please contact our fundraising team on fundraising@mkuh.nhs.uk or telephone 01908 996220.
