Cure Leukaemia has been recognised by the 2018 Charity Today Awards for Medical Research. The award comes after a successful 2017 saw the charity raise an additional £1m to help fund the £3.4m expansion of the Centre for Clinical Haematology (CCH) at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

The Centre, which reopened to treat patients in January 2018, now has double the capacity for patients, groundbreaking clinical trials and specialist staff to run the trials and care for patients. Patients treated at the Centre, annually, has risen from 10,000 to 20,000, waiting times have decreased dramatically and additional out-patient space and facilities have created bed space elsewhere in the hospital.

It fulfils a vision to create a centre of excellence for clinical haematology which combines outpatient and day infusion facilities along with improved access to clinical and research teams when available standard treatments have been exhausted.

Professor Charlie Craddock, CBE, Director of the centre and co-founder of Cure Leukaemia, said:

“The expansion will allow the continued growth of our world-class clinical trials programme, ensuring Birmingham will continue to lead the global fight against all forms of blood cancer.

“It will immediately increase the number of lives saved and will speed the process towards establishing effective treatments for all blood cancers within 25 years.”

Cure Leukaemia Chief Executive James McLaughlin said:

‘We are honoured to have been recognised by Charity Today after a transformative 2017 for Cure Leukaemia. The additional funds we raised last year to allow the expansion of the Centre will not only help save more lives but also hasten global progress towards the eradication of all forms of blood cancer within 25 years.

We would like to thank Charity Today for the support given to Cure Leukaemia during this time which undoubtedly helped us spread the word about this transformative project.”