How you can help Sheffield Children's Hospital create a new cancer and leukaemia ward

The board at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust have approved the plan. Building work is expected to begin in April and completed in a year’s time.

The new ward will increase the number of beds to 16 and the number of specially filtered isolation rooms to six. There will be a break-out space for teenagers and young adults and the play and school rooms will be relocated to the heart of the ward.

PACT (Parents’ Association of Children with Tumours and Leukaemia) are fundraising to provide a parent room on the new ward which will be bigger and brighter, able to host coffee mornings and breakfast clubs when it is safe to do so.

It will also act as a place on the ward for parents to support each other.

A centre of excellence, the oncology and haematology department covers South Yorkshire through to Nottingham and Grimsby.

The ward provides treatment for cancer and blood disorders in children from babies to 19-year-olds in South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. It also sees patients from across the UK for chemotherapy, operations and bone marrow transplants.

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A ‘wish list’ for the single bedrooms was developed following a survey of patients, family and staff.

The charity’s Artfelt programme’s proposed design includes a wall which can be personalised and made to feel like home, more en-suite facilities, a drop-down table for family meals, reading lights, a TV screen, temperature controls and sockets for games consoles and computers.

Artfelt manager Cat Powell said: “Today is rightfully a day of excitement and anticipation, the culmination of more than two years of effort.

“Put simply, what we can do depends on you. The plans we have outlined today illustrate what is possible with your support.”

To give £5, text SHEFFCHILDRENS to 70085 (cost £5 plus standard message rate).

Visit www.tchc.org.uk/donate to give online or call 0114 321 2470 to donate by card payment.

In these confusing and worrying times, local journalism is more vital than ever. Thanks to everyone who helps us ask the questions that matter by taking out a digital subscription or buying a paper. We stand together. Nancy Fielder, editor.