Charity appeal to fund comfy chemo chairs

Patients can now receive chemotherapy treatment in more comfort, thanks to Bradford Hospitals’ Charity.

Two specialist chemotherapy armchairs – worth £3,700 each – have been funded by the charity to ensure patients can receive the gruelling treatment at Bradford Royal Infirmary in the most comfortable environment possible.

But Carolyn Butterfield, who manages the Chemotherapy Day Case Unit, is keen to replace ALL the treatment chairs to avoid the impossible situation of having to choose which patients are treated in most comfort.

“We have eight treatment chairs in total – only two of which are top of the range models which offer the very best comfort and safety features. Our six remaining chairs are quite basic and do not offer the same level of luxury.” she said.

“Patients can sit in chairs for treatment up to nine hours at a time and up to three times per week. That’s a significant amount of time to be sat, especially receiving chemotherapy treatment which is not particularly pleasant. Many of our patients also feel quite poorly when they arrive. The least we can do is let them get their feet up and feel comfortable.”

Carolyn explained that the new chairs also provide an additional safety feature which allows clinicians to push a button to lay the patient down quickly, if they suffer from anaphylaxis.

“This can happen very unexpectedly,” said Carolyn. “We current manage this safely by transferring patients to a bed, but it is much easier on the new chairs as we can push a button and the patient lies flat immediately for us to begin treatment.”

Hayley Collis, head of fundraising for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity, said: “We are delighted to see that the two new chemotherapy chairs are making cancer treatment more comfortable for our patients.

“The chemotherapy chairs are very specialist pieces of equipment, but also very expensive. We feel that we can’t put a price tag on comfort for patients who are going through this gruelling treatment and often feeling quite unwell. We believe our patients deserve to be in comfort, which is why we hope the people of Bradford will support this appeal to raise £22,200 to ensure ALL chairs offer the very best comfort and quality.”

If you would like to make a donation towards buying new chemotherapy chairs, visit https://www.justgiving.com/bradfordteachinghospital and indicate you would like your donation to go to our cancer fund.

Alternatively, if you or your workplace would like to fundraise, please contact Hayley Collis or Elaine Drake in the Bradford Hospitals’ Charity office on 01274 274809 or email [email protected]

More information about Bradford Hospitals’ Charity can be found at www.bradfordhospitalscharity.org