Fight for Life

The BIG fight for the little people

Fight for Life was formed in 1996 to raise funds to build a dedicated children's radiotherapy unit at the Middlesex Hospital, London.

In January 2000 the new unit was opened by Fight for Life's patron, Gary Lineker. The unit is equipped with a state of the art Linear Accelerator radiotherapy machine, enabling treatment with the best possible precision and speed.

We have now moved to a brand new dedicated cancer unit installed at the new UCH hospital on the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Euston Road. Our Linear Accelerator – the high energy radiotherapy equipment used for treating children’s cancers, bought with your money and now fully paid for, is coming with us and we will also have our own brand new ‘children’s play area and waiting room, to give them some breathing space whilst waiting for their treatment. All this has meant that the children under our care have been treated to the very highest standards, and the unit can now claim to be a world-class paediatric cancer treatment centre – second to none. As far as we are aware, there is no other similar facility anywhere in the UK, with such a wide range of expertise and modern equipment. We then launched a brand new appeal for a dedicated PET/CT scanner which has just been installed and Fight for Life are committed to leasing costs over the next few years of at least £150,000 per annum.

Fight for Life has now announced our exciting and revolutionary new project for 2011-2012. TrueBeam™ - Fight For Lfie's 2011 / 2012 Commitment to the UCLH Children's Radio Therapy Unit.

Change has been the inspiration for TrueBeam™ a new, state-of-the-art radiotherapy and radiosurgery system optimized to destroy cancer. It has been built with intelligent engineering, innovative features and intuitive operation. This is based upon years of research, and provides a capability that allows doctors to tailor patients' treatments for their particular type of cancer.

This new machine will allow us to treat our children with cancer in the most accurate way. Imaging on this new unit is some of the best in the world. The engineering innovations mean we will be able to treat children very quickly with the smallest fields possible – this will allow us to reduce the dose to normal organs and tissue.

There is a fantastic inbuilt intercom system too, so it will be even easier for parents to talk and read stories to their children during Radiotherapy.

Fight for Life is staffed solely by volunteers and ALL contributions go directly to the fund.