Breast care charity raises £30,000
Date of release: 2 March 2023
Breast cancer survivors raised more than £30,000 to buy specialist equipment at New Cross Hospital to improve treatment for patients.
A regular sales table, generous donations and grants, a popular annual quiz and a fashion show raised £30,675.00, allowing the Breast Cancer Action Group (BCAG) Wolverhampton and District to buy wireless technology for breast cancer patients at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT).
From left: Tapan Sircar, Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon, Gill Phillips, Chair of BCAG Wolverhampton and District, Raghavan Vidya, Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon and Clinical Lead, Sam Bullows, Lead Clinical Nurse Specialist – Breast Care, Caroline Jones, Consultant Breast Nurse, Natasha Bowen, Consultant Radiographer, Ehsanur Rahman, Specialty Doctor, Breast Surgery, Karen Wilkinson-Glancy, Treasurer, BCAG Wolverhampton and District, Tina Richardson, Secretary, BCAG Wolverhampton and District with the new equipment
The tiny SCOUT reflector clips, made of nitinol alloy and are less than the size of a rice grain, are inserted into the breast or axilla (armpit) via local anaesthetic into the skin. They enable surgeons to precisely target the affected tissue to pinpoint its location within one millimetre.
This procedure takes the same amount of time and is exactly the same procedure as a wire localisation, just placing a SCOUT instead of a wire into the breast. Now there can be more surgeries, optimised breast conservation strategies, and enhanced outcomes for women.
Raghavan Vidya, Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon and Clinical Lead at RWT, said: “The arrival of SCOUT to RWT means patients can have this done weeks or months in advance of their surgery, and allows the surgeon to go exactly where they need to go to remove the abnormal cells.
“We’re very grateful to BCAG for these funds to enable us to do this. This very co-ordinated skilled procedure means we can treat more patients. Surgically, it doesn’t matter if their operation is cancelled, whereas before, the wire had to be pulled out if the operation date was altered.”
Most members of BCAG Wolverhampton and District have experienced breast cancer and want to help others.
The introducer needle that deploys the tiny SCOUT reflector clip within the breast being held, and (right) the SCOUT reflector clip inside a breast
Gill Phillips, the group’s Chair, 71, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 after a routine mammogram and had a lumpectomy and re-alignment surgery.
Grandmother of two, Karen Wilkinson-Glancy, 61, Treasurer of the group and a retired finance auditor from Pendeford, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016 and had surgery and radiotherapy before being given the all clear in January 2021.
Gill, from Compton and a retired head teacher for a pupil referral unit, said: “We try to support anyone who has breast cancer and the health professionals who work with them, so we’re delighted to be able to buy the SCOUT equipment which will make such a difference.
“The breast cancer team here is fantastic – no one could fault them and everyone is grateful for all the hard work the staff do. The nurses also support us by attending our events.”
Previously BCAG Wolverhampton and District has donated £10,000 each to Compton Care and Macmillan Cancer Information and Support Centre at New Cross Hospital.
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Notes to Editor
- For further information, please call Tim Nash 07714 741097 or email tim.nash2@nhs.net
Press release issued by the Communications team. For more information contact the team on 01902 695884
