The new Boudicca Breast Unit waiting and reception area – photo supplied

 

A new waiting area and reception has been opened for patients attending the breast cancer unit at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

The new area is the latest development in the project to create a new unit, funded by donations to the N&N Hospitals Charity’s Boudicca Breast Cancer Appeal.

The waiting area includes walls decorated with images by artist Gilly McCadden.

Gilly said: “The brief was to create something with a very naturalistic feel and so, in early spring last year when I was thinking about this on walks in the village that I live, I thought the hedgerows were perfect inspiration.

“The spring shoots of our native wild rose was the obvious choice and the starting point for the image.”

Gilly said her own breast cancer diagnosis more than 14 years ago was behind her decision to take on the project: “I remember exactly what it was like being in a waiting area, you don’t forget something like that, all that sitting around and waiting and the anxiety of not knowing what the news is going to be.”

The breast cancer unit handles all referrals of suspected breast cancer from GPs, the number which has almost doubled in recent years.
More than £500,000 has been raised through the Boudicca Breast Cancer Appeal, which has been used to purchase a Stereotactic mammography system which uses low-dose x-rays to help locate a breast abnormality and remove a tissue and is less invasive than surgical biopsy.

Also now being used is a Hologic LOCalizer guidance system so that very small breast cancers can be more accurately and less invasively identified during diagnosis and surgery, improving the patient’s experience and further reducing the need for multiple visits to hospital.

Dr Arne Juette, Consultant Radiologist and Director of Breast Screening at the Trust, said: “It’s wonderful to see the new waiting area in the expanded breast unit which gives patients a more holistic experience in a soothing environment.

“The artwork adds such a lovely touch to the area, and it’s particularly special for us that it has been designed by an artist who knows first hand what our patients are experiencing and this comes through in the images through the unit.”
The next phase of the breast cancer unit development is the creation of patient counselling rooms. If you would like to support this through the Boudicca Appeal please go to our website https://nnhospitalscharity.org.uk/