40 years of Charlie Bear’s fantastic work
THIS is a milestone year for the Charlie Bear for Cancer Care fund as it celebrates 40 years of supporting cancer patients across the North East and Cumbria.
Charlie Bear was launched in 1978 by cancer patient Daisy Clark who, along with husband Charles, began making teddy bears to help raise the £1 million needed to buy the region’s first whole body CT scanner.
Following the sudden death of Charles, Daisy named the appeal Charlie Bear.
With the help of friends, support from the Chronicle and the North East public, the Make Charlie a Millionaire campaign reached its target of £1 million by 1982. Daisy received an MBE for her efforts.
After retiring, she decided to sign a special certificate in 1993 so that Charlie Bear could be adopted by the Northern Centre for Cancer Treatment (NCCT) at Newcastle General Hospital.
This was later replaced by the Northern Centre for Cancer Care (NCCC) at the Freeman Hospital.
Daisy’s fundraising and support continued until her death in 1995.
In 2012, a £200,000 donation from Charlie Bear, along with donations from the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and the Newcastle Healthcare Charity (now known as the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Charity), helped secure the revolutionary Stereotactic Radiotherapy facility for the NCCC.
It enabled cancer patients in our region to benefit from the most advanced form of radiotherapy in the country.
One of Charlie Bear’s greatest supporters is 82-year-old Yvonne Moore who lives in Gosforth.
Next January will see her celebrate 20 years as a volunteer.
Today she lends her time to the Charlie Bear Shop on the main concourse of the NCCC.
Yvonne said: “I serve in the shop one day a week, also helping to tidy and dust, price-up goods and so on.
“Being situated in the main atrium, we’re so visible when patients and visitors arrive at the NCCC that we like to offer a friendly face and a kind word for all visitors especially if they’re feeling anxious.
“We like to think of ourselves as Charlie Bear’s HQ.”
Today Charlie Bear continues to support the NCCC as a fund within the Newcastle Hospitals’ NHS Charity. It remains a symbol of generosity and support for improving the quality of life and care for cancer patients in the North East and Cumbria. Donations to Charlie Bear help the NCCC to keep pace with fastmoving developments in medical equipment and treatment. They’ve funded more sophisticated equipment, extra patient comforts and specialist staff training as well as local research projects to develop new
Whether you’ve ran, swam, volunteered or sang, donated, or anything else ... thank you Dr Ian Pedley
treatments and technologies.
Dr Ian Pedley, consultant clinical oncologist and clinical director for the NCCC, said: “Providing exceptional patient care is at the heart of everything we do here at the NCCC, and charitable donations are an important part of that, helping us to keep the centre at the cutting edge of cancer treatment in this country.
“I would like to thank the generous North East public and our supporters from further afield, for all they have done to support the fund over the past 40 years, and for what they continue to do today.
“Whether you’ve ran, swam, volunteered or sang, held an event, donated, cheered on our charity runners or something else, thank you so much for your support.
“Because of you, we’ve been able to do some pretty amazing things over the past 40 years and because of you, we continue to provide that little bit extra for local people with cancer.” ■■Anyone wishing to make a donation to Charlie Bear for Cancer Care can do so by visiting www.justgiving.com/ charliebear ■■For anyone wishing to fundraise, please contact us at charity.matters@nuth.nhs.uk / 0191 213 7235