Supporting Bucks For More Than 30 Years

The unit is a unique stand-alone facility designed and purpose-built to provide a wide range of outpatient and day-case treatments for patients with cancer, including blood cancers such as leukaemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Patients with non-malignant blood problems such as clotting and bleeding disorders, various forms of anaemia, immune problems and haemoglobinopathies, are also investigated and cared for in the CCHU. By providing treatment locally, patients who previously had to stay in hospital could be treated as day patients while leading normal lives in their own homes.

The unit opened in January 2001, allowing both oncology and haematology to be brought together under one roof. With additional funds contributed by CCHF the unit was extended in 2007, and in recent years that provision has expanded with some aspects of care delivered in community settings closer to patient’s homes, including in Marlow and Thame.

Part of the more than £1 million raised through the initial fundraising by June Wilson and team was a £300,000 donation from The Wooden Spoon Society. The unit was officially opened by Princess Royal in 2001, and the CCHU was referred to as ‘Wooden Spoon Society Family Cancer Care and Haematology Unit’. At that time The Princess Royal was Patron of the Wooden Spoon Society, a Rugby Union charity.

While some people were a little shocked at linking the term ‘wooden spoon’ [the Rugby Union losers award] to those being treated for cancer, many patients found it ironic and amusing. When the building was extended, the name simplified to the Cancer Care and Haematology Unit, but many current patients and relatives of those who have been treated there still fondly refer to it as ‘the Wooden Spoon’.

All the outpatient services and treatments given in the CCHU at Stoke Mandeville are also provided in the Sunrise Unit at Wycombe Hospital.

Since the merger of the two hospitals, the cancer and haematology services have become one.  Many of the staff work at both hospitals. The complex inpatient services needed to support the treatment of cancer and haematology patients are now concentrated in Ward 5 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

The service is staffed by cancer information healthcare professionals and supported by trained volunteers, and is administered by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

The service is based at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, near Aylesbury, and has been developed to ensure that people affected by cancer in Buckinghamshire have access to good quality, comprehensive and appropriate information and support during, and after, their treatment.

The Cancer Information and Wellbeing Service receives additional financial support from the Cancer Care and Haematology Fund charity.

Go to the Cancer Information and Wellbeing Service page.