South Thames CTY network finalist for HSJ award

16 Aug 2023

South Thames Children’s, Teenagers’ and Young Adults Operational Delivery Network, hosted by RM Partners, is delighted to announce that their project, ‘Fertility preservation for teenage & young adults with cancer’ has been shortlisted for an HSJ award in the category of ‘Reducing Inequalities and Improving Outcomes for Children and Young People’.

The project’s aim is to reduce inequalities in the provision of care pathways for fertility preservation for teenagers and young adults with cancer. This collaboration of multiple stakeholders, including clinicians, the charitable sector and young people themselves, is working locally to develop a single pathway across the South Thames region, and nationally to develop a proposal to support a case for specialised commissioning and therefore facilitate consistency in funding throughout England and the devolved nations.

Project lead Emma Thistlethwayte, Teenage & Young Adult Lead Nurse at The Royal Marsden, said: ‘To be shortlisted is a wonderful accolade to the hard work and dedication of this team of individuals who have consistently advocated for the needs of these patients to have the same access to quality fertility care and continuity of funding.

‘A pilot of the new pathway has been undertaken at both The Royal Marsden and one of our designated hospitals, Guy’s and St Thomas’ with a view to roll out across the South Thames region later this year.

‘As so aptly said by one of our young people who was supported by their clinical nurse specialist in line with the new pathways implemented, “Thank you very much! Your help is really massive. I have no words. It’s fantastic. Thank you for everything.”’

A ‘record-breaking’ 1456 entries were received for this year’s Awards, with 223 projects and individuals reaching the final shortlist, making it the biggest awards programme in the award’s 43-year history.

The selected winners will be announced during the awards ceremony at Evolution London on November 16 2023.