First she summarised the Cancer Centre’s troubled history. 

 Then she reminded us that her project’s interim report, published in March, reversed previous decisions and confirmed that the Cancer Centre will stay at Mount Vernon for many years ahead.  That very welcome decision brought two immediate developments.  Firstly plans to rebuild the dilapidated cancer wards are now underway, which is excellent news.  Secondly the Cancer Centre is able to look for an academic partner.

 Until the Cancer Centre was threatened with being moved to Hatfield it had a very fruiful academic partnership on site, with the Gray Cancer Institute.  However, faced with that threat the Gray Cancer Institute was moved from Mount Vernon to Oxford, leaving an academic void, which damaged the ability of the Cancer Centre to take part in research trials or to attract research funding. 

 The next stage of the project will consider whether to expand cancer services at Mount Vernon or to use Mount Vernon as the hub of a system with one or more satellites further north, possibly in Luton or Stevenage. 

 All these exciting developments give the Cancer Centre a higher profile, contributing to the fact  that the Cancer Centre has been selected as the first NHS site in the country to have cyberknife technology, which allows very advanced and precise radiotherapy treatment for some types of tumour.

Altogether this was a meeting to remember, with an excellent speaker and excellent news.