The Christie in Macclesfield opens

The Christie in Macclesfield will welcome its first patients today.

The cancer treatment centre cost over £26m, most of which came from donations.

The new centre will provide a range of holistic services including radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, counselling services, an information centre, palliative care and a wider range of clinical trials – delivering 12,500 radiotherapy treatments every year and 6,800 chemotherapy, immunotherapy and hormonal treatments.

Dr Andrew Sykes, clinical lead for the new centre, said: “We have already heard from hundreds of people who have experienced cancer how much difference the new centre will make. Whilst patients and families are prepared to travel to The Christie in Withington for specialist services, we know that most would prefer to have their care locally where possible. 

“The Christie at Macclesfield will provide the highest standard of cancer care for patients.” 

Roger Spencer, Chief Executive at The Christie said: “We are delighted to be opening The Christie at Macclesfield today and will be providing a very warm Christie welcome to our first patients.

“The centre marks a new era in cancer care and treatment for people from East Cheshire and the surrounding areas. Many patients from Macclesfield and beyond currently travel to our Withington site but radiotherapy patients particularly will benefit from much shorter journeys in the future.”

Mr Spencer goes on to say: “Patients having radiotherapy can spend hours each day travelling to and from Withington for up to six weeks, at a time when they and their families are already very distressed.”

A hope to decrease travel time for patient care was a focus when building the new structure, with radiotherapy patients needing to visit seven days a week for anywhere up to six weeks. 

In total, the Christie at Macclesfield will see more than 46,000 patients visits a year for existing patients from Cheshire, North Staffordshire, High Peak in Derbyshire, and other local surrounding areas. 

Donations from the public were made to help fund £23 million towards the £26 million total cost of the building, with the remaining £3 million coming from the NHS.

Louise Stimson from The Christie charity said: “The new centre will deliver cancer care to the highest Christie standards, but closer to where patients live. Many patients currently travel to The Christie in South Manchester, putting tremendous pressure on them and their families at an already stressful time.

“As a charity, we were hit badly by COVID-19 and that directly impacts the support we can offer the hospital. We have never needed our supporters more because cancer didn’t stop during the pandemic.”

The new infrastructure replaced the old Millbrook Unit to provide a larger capacity space with more advanced technology to offer better patient care to those who live locally.