Great Ormond Street Hospital

Gt Ormond St Charity

ABOUT GOSH

Great Ormond Street Hospital treats more than 90,000 patients each year - children who are suffering from the rarest, most complex and often life-threatening conditions. They receive the best medical care that money can buy, but the NHS funding cannot meet these ever-rising costs, and that's where the hospital's charity, GOSHCC, steps in.

GOSH - the Hospital
GOSH offers the widest range of paediatric specialties under one roof in Britain, and pioneers new treatments and drugs through its research body, the Institute of Child Health.

GOSHCC - the Charity
Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity aims to raise over £20 million this year to boost the NHS funding, and without this extra funding the hospital would not be able to continue its important work.

History
The Hospital has relied on the generosity of the public to keep it going for over 150 years.

The Hospital for Sick Children first opened it doors at 49 Great Ormond Street on Valentine's Day, 1852, with ten beds. Dr Charles West was the driving force behind its opening, driven by the shockingly high level of infant mortality in the capital.

The first child admitted to GOSH was two-year-old George Parr, who had catarrh and diarrhoea - not serious by today's standards, but this was a time when one third of children born in London died before adulthood.

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust
Great Ormond Street, London WC1N 3JH
Tel: +44 (0)20 7405 9200, Fax: +44 (0)20 7829 8643

Samantha Dickson Research Trust
ABOUT THE SDBTT

Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust was first registered with the Charity Commission by Samantha’s parents, Neil and Angela in December 1996. Samantha had died with a brain tumour on the 31st October 1996, just six days before her 17th birthday.

Since 1996, the charity has become the largest dedicated brain tumour charity in the UK with the highest level of laboratory based brain tumour research in the country. The Trust offers support to patients diagnosed with a brain tumour as well as their families and/or carers.

Research projects are chosen carefully with the advice of our Scientific and Medical Advisory Board and over 250 specialists in the field of neurology from all over the UK, Europe, Canada and the USA. They give their time freely in a concerted effort to help promote research and improve survivability for patients.

A number of groups come under the SDBTT 'umbrella' to help raise awareness and funding for research in order to help fight this devastating disease. There will be an umbrella trust set up in Alfie’s name.

Brain Tumour Statistics

· Around 6,500 people are diagnosed each year with a primary brain tumour
· Sadly 3,400 people lose their lives to a brain tumour each year
· Whilst on average 75% of all childhood cancer patients in Britain survive five years, only 65% of children diagnosed with a brain tumour live for longer than this
· In adults the statistic is even more tragic with only 14% living longer than 5 years
· Nearly one third of all cancer deaths in children are from a brain tumour
· The number of people dying from a brain tumour has increased over the last decade
· More children now die from a brain tumour than any other childhood cancer
· On average it takes longer to diagnose a child with a brain tumour in the UK than in North America and a number of European countries. The principal cause of delay in diagnosis is the failure by front-line health professionals to include brain tumours in the differential diagnosis.

Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust
 Saddlers House, 100 Reading Road, Yately, Hampshire. GU46 7RX
Tel +44 (0)845 130 9733, Fax +44 (0)845 130 9744