Our mobile chemotherapy unit makes all the difference to Rob
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Our mobile chemotherapy unit is really changing lives for people like Rob Holtby, one of the first to be treated when it took to the road.
Rob, a farmer from Leavening, has prostate cancer and before the unit was launched, he was travelling to Scarborough for chemotherapy – a return trip of around 60 miles.
A former steward at Malton Rugby Club, Rob still looks after the pitch at the club, one of the unit’s regular ports of call.
When he went in for his first session at the mobile unit, the staff even turned it around for him so he could see his beloved club ground. A tree was slightly in the way, so Rob nipped out to trim a couple of branches back.
“The new unit is making a big difference to patients like me,” said Rob. “The nurses in Scarborough are brilliant, they are very good to you, but it is a stressful thing that you are having done.
“When I had to travel to Scarborough, it was 30 miles each way. We would allow ourselves an hour for traffic but I would always get a bit stressed about the travel, too.
“Now it’s at Malton, it’s so much better. It’s so easy, it’s just down the road and when they took my blood pressure, it was the lowest it had ever been because I just haven’t got the stress.
“It’s not just me that benefits - there will be hundreds of people who are not going to have to travel and it makes a big difference to your personal wellbeing.
“I think it is brilliant and it’s fantastic to think that people have been generous enough to make things like this happen through York Against Cancer. I would urge anyone to contribute if they can – I think it’s such a good cause.”