News archive
Oxfordshire towns support UCARE by planting tulip bulbs.
21st October 2017
Planting of the UCARE tulip bulbs by Woodstock in Bloom.
UCARE is celebrating a milestone anniversary. It is 10 years since doctors at the Churchill Hospital set up the charity UCARE [ Urology Cancer Research and Education] to improve the treatment and care of people with urological cancers of the prostate, bladder, kidney and testes through raising funds for research and education.
We have a very special unique tulip bulb, Tulipa Caresse, which represents our logo, which we sell every year to fundraise. The beautiful long stemmed pink tulip has already been planted in gardens in Oxfordshire, in the homes of our Patrons at Broughton Castle, and at Blenheim Palace. Its been planted at Highgrove and featured in show gardens at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival, when in 2016 the garden featured on the BBCs Gardeners World.
This year, UCARE celebrates with towns and venues across Oxfordshire, and at the All England Lawn Tennis Club (Wimbledon), where mass planting of the bulb will take place for the charity’s Spring celebration. Look out for a sea of pink and send us your photos please.
Planting will start in the Peoples Park in Banbury, and also will be in towns such as Woodstock, Thame, Abingdon, Bicester Village, and the AELTC.
RHS Hampton Court Flower Show
30th April 2017
We were thrilled to learn that UCARE had been chosen by garden designer Martyn Wilson for support from his show garden at this year’s RHS Hampton Court Flower Show in July 2017.
Each show garden we have designed and built has supported charities both national and local, and we are very honoured to support UCARE.
The show garden is a conceptual take on derelict/vacant or ‘Brownfield’ sites and aims to explore the narrative of transition, regeneration of such sites. The garden is being sponsored by St. Modwen Properties PLC the UK’s leading regeneration specialist.
UCARE tulips decorate golf club
30th April 2017
The Green Keepers at Studley Wood Golf Club have planted hundreds of UCARE tulips.
They have created a sea of beautiful pink flowers all along the road at the entrance and in the grounds of the golf club at Horton-Cum-Studley.
Jonathan Acott – Kick at the Darkness Challenge
27th March 2017
UCARE Advocate Jonathan Acott has set himself an incredible list of challenges this year to raise £36,500 for our charity.
During the year he will run the Longhorn Marathon, complete a 143 mile bike ride in South Wales, a 53 mile Ultra marathon along the South Downs and a 14km swim along the Thanes between Henley and Marlow.
These will be building up to The Golden to Sunshine ride - a 3070 mile cross America bike ride from San Diego to Florida in 24 days.
He says
Cancer has been the one constant in my life, it has taken my brain and my body into the darkest places but thanks to medicine, friends, loved ones, a lot of faith, a sense of humour and an indomitable will I find myself here.
I am truly grateful and blessed to be alive today and to be as physically able as I am. The body and the mind are amazing things so to celebrate them both I am going to take on 5 challenges in 2017 to ‘Kick at the Darkness’; to hopefully inspire a little, to raise money for a wonderful charity and to show that ordinary people can do extra ordinary things.
Support Jonathan at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kickatthedark and read his blog at www.jonathanthriving.com/.
New ultrasound scanner in memory of Nilay Patel
7th September 2016
UCARE have presented a new scanner to the Churchill Urology Department in memory of Nilay Patel.
After the sudden death in May 2014 of the young, very talented urological surgeon Mr Nilay Patel, the Trustees of UCARE, some of whom had worked with Nilay and new Trustee Seetal Patel, Nilays wife, decided to set up a fund in his memory. We are very grateful to everyone who has so kindly donated to this fund and to all who have shared their very fond memories and gratitude to Nilay.
As Nilay was instrumental in helping David Cranston and Mark Sullivan set up Oxford as a National referral centre for complex renal surgery, it was decided to use £30,000 of the money raised to purchase a scanner to use for complex renal surgery. Previously there had not been access to a scanner between 5pm and 8am, and the first few hours after the transplant are a critical time as the artery and veins are at risk of thrombosis and blocking.
The scanner was officially handed over to the Churchill Urology Department on September 5th by Seetal and their daughters Nahla and Suraya.
Testicular website Talking Bollox launched
28th June 2016
The Talking Bollox patient community website has been designed to provide a comprehensive library of information on all stages of Testicular Cancer diagnosis, treatment, patient support and aftercare.
You can create a login to allow our healthcare professionals to answer your private questions or use a guest login to view the site anonymously.
- Login to https://ucare.force.com/talkingbollox
Click the Signup link at bottom right in the box
You will see the following information…
Welcome to the Talking Bollox website. Please enter the below information to be a site user. Hovering your mouse over each field will provide help information on how to complete each field.
To access the site you must initially provide a valid email address in which to contact you with should you ask any private questions to our healthcare professionals. However please note, UCARE will never use this information in any ways for marketing purposes or share with a third party.This Site is open to the public. You should consider comments carefully and do not post any information or ideas that you would like to keep private. This blog provides general information and discussion about health and subjects related to testicular cancer. The words and other content provided in this blog by other users, and in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice. If the reader or any other person has a medical concern, he or she should consult your GP,hospital Consultant.
If you do not want to leave your details, please go to the next step by pressing guest log in where you can use the site anonymously.
- Click Guest Login Button if you do not want an account
- After clicking the button, user will be able to login without registration.
The Secret Tulip Artwork Project
June 2015
Find out more
Read more about the Secret Tulip Artwork Project.
The Secret Tulip Artwork Project is raising money for UCARE. It will feature anonymous works of art of a tulip, from professional artists, amateur artists, celebrities, a host of household names, friends and supporters. As you will see from our logo, UCARE has a pink stylised ‘U’ which looks like a tulip. On the strength of this we have adopted the tulip as our emblem.
- We ask artists to create a piece of art, using their medium of choice ie photography; sew/stitch; ceramics; jewellery; glass-; wood- or metal– work.
- Paint/draw/sketch us a personalised picture of a tulip, using the medium, style and surface of your choice, about 21 x 15 cm [8” x 6”]. Please sign on the back. It can be framed or unframed.
- UCARE will then hold a preview evening before auctioning the work by our anonymous artists, to raise money for urology cancer research and to help us raise awareness.
- It means that art lovers will have a chance to buy your piece of art, hang a painting in their home, all of which could have been created by any one of the artists we will list at preview - and who will not be revealed to the buyer until the work is sold.
- We would like to collate all our pieces of art and paintings by 30th September 2015.
- We ask for a short CV so we can promote the artist and their work at the preview.
Questions About Cancer?
January 2015
Free advice and support coming to Oxfordshire
Free, specialist support and information about cancer is coming to Oxfordshire from Monday 22nd to Thursday 25th February. Macmillan Cancer Support’s mobile service will be visiting the area, with cancer information specialists on hand to answer questions and offer support. The team encourages anyone with worries or concerns relating to cancer to stop by, whether you’re living with or beyond cancer, or are a carer or loved one of someone who is.
Cancer can impact on all aspects of your life, and the mobile service team is available to provide information on issues ranging from how to deal with the side effects of treatment, what local support is available for carers, where to turn if you are struggling with your finances, and information on where to get travel insurance.
In Witney on Monday 22nd, and Chipping Norton on Tuesday 23rd they will be joined by Gemma Crane from UCARE. Gemma will be able to provide information and advice about signs and symptoms of cancers of the bladder, kidney and prostate and also provide info and support to patients.
Mary Mountford-Lister, a Macmillan Information and Support Specialist on the unit, says:
“It’s really important that people affected by cancer can access the information and support they need so they can focus on what’s most important: their health. We encourage anyone to step on board the bus and speak to us – we can give you advice face-to-face as well as signposting you to other services in your local area. No appointment is necessary, and we’re here even if all you need is a chat.”
Macmillan Cancer Support’s five mobile information units travel around the UK visiting local communities, providing cancer information and advice on the ground. Last year they helped around 60,000 people in over 500 locations across the UK.
Details of the visit:
- Monday 22nd February - Witney
Market Square, High Street, Opposite HSBC, OX28 6AG
10am to 4pm - Tuesday 23rd February - Chipping Norton
Outside Sainsburys 12-14 Market Place, OX7 5NA
10am to 4pm - Wednesday 24th February - Banbury
Cornhill, Pedestrianised area of Market Place, OX16 5NB
10am to 4pm - Thursday 25th February - Bicester
Sheep Street, Opposite Methodist Church, OX26 6LG
9am to 3pm
UCARE funded researchers take first step to unlocking new treatments for both prostate and breast cancer
Many of you are familiar with the work of Dr Val Macaulay and her team, and will have seen in the Summer 2014 newsletter in the Voices of UCARE a piece from Val about her research work and the importance of the UCARE funding to that work. As well as working on prostate cancer, Dr Macaulay and her team’s work also focuses on breast cancer which is funded by the Breast Cancer Campaign.
In a paper published in the journal Cancer Research, Dr Macaulay’s team used breast cancer cells grown in the lab, to find proteins that affect how well breast cancer cells are killed by IGF-1R blockers.
In parallel with this work on breast cancer, Dr Macaulay’s team conducted experiments in prostate cancer. This part of the work was funded by your support of UCARE. As with breast cancer, the results showed that reducing the amount of DVL3, or blocking DVL3 with a chemical drug, made the prostate cancer cells easier to kill with IGF-1R blockers.
Valerie Berry, Development Officer at UCARE, said:
We are very happy to have been able to support this work, which will help cancer researchers to find out which prostate cancer patients may respond to treatment with IGF-1R blockers. This work also suggests that it may be beneficial to test combinations of drugs that block DVL3 and IGF-1R.
Dr Lisa Wilde, Director of Research at Breast Cancer Campaign, said:
This is the first step to unlocking a new type of treatment, IGF-1R blockers, for the women with breast cancer who are most likely to benefit.
More information is on the Breast Cancer Campaign website.