Hundreds given chemo... at work

WHEN Heather Jones takes a quick break from her work at a cafe, it’s not always to stretch her legs – sometimes it’s so that she can have potentially life-saving breast cancer treatment.

In an office above Cassandra’s Cafe in Widnes, Cheshire, where the 27-year-old is a cook, a trained nurse injects the tumour-shrinking medicine Herceptin into her leg.

‘The alternative would mean going to hospital – a round-trip of at least an hour by car and probably a day off work,’ says the mother-ofone. Heather, who was diagnosed in May 2018, is one of the first patients in the country to benefit from the ground-breaking scheme that allows sufferers to have treatment at work or home.

Although some chemotherapy drugs can be given as pills, most need to be gradually injected via a drip into a vein in the arm or chest. A dose of Herceptin can take just ten minutes to administer.

So far, the ‘chemo-at-home’ scheme is only being rolled out across Cheshire. A pilot project in 2015 proved so successful it is now being increased to cover hundreds more patients from the county and there are hopes that it could be extended to the rest of England in the next few years.

The initiative is spearheaded by The Wirral-based Clatterbridge Cancer Centre. Oncologists at a nearby hospital are on call if anything goes awry, and patients remain under the care of their specialist cancer team.

Helen Poulter-Clark, the centre’s chief pharmacist, says: ‘This has been one of our big success stories, not only for patients but for staff as well. It’s part of a wider strategy – the more patients we treat at home, the more clinic capacity we have.

‘We’ve also been the first cancer centre in the country to offer treatment at patients’ workplaces and I’m really proud of that.

‘Our patient satisfaction has been fantastic, and that’s the main reason we’re doing this.’

Heather jumped at the chance to have the treatment at work instead of attending a clinic.

‘It was awful being in hospital – I hated it,’ she says. ‘This scheme has given me my life back.’