The Mark Benevolent Fund (MBF) has approved funding of £13,479 for eight specialist chairs for cancer patients at the Chartwell Suite at Maidstone Hospital.
The Chartwell Suite, which has no official budget and has been relying on charity funding for equipment, is a day unit which treats Haematological based cancers such as lymphoma, myeloma and leukaemia It has only been in existence for two years and is soon to be renamed the ‘Sarah Hurst Day Unit’ in memory of a former colleague, who lost her own battle with cancer.
Prior to the unit’s inception, haematology patients were treated alongside oncology patients and the move has allowed a massive improvement in both capacity and patient experience.
Patients sometimes have to sit for up to eight hours at a time whilst receiving their care. The previous chairs were not best suited to this and had already been used elsewhere in the Trust when the unit opened.
W. Bro. Christopher Norcutt, Worshipful Master of Chatham’s Richard Watts Mark Lodge No. 1461, whose wife Beverley is receiving important treatment from the dedicated team at the Chartwell Suite, commented “These new chairs are a massive improvement and will make a huge difference to the comfort of the patients. I am most grateful to David Green, Brian Ward and the team at the MBF for making this a reality.”