Green light given for £30m cancer research centre

A £30 million centre for pioneering cancer research and treatment will be built at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital.

- DANIEL HOLLAND

City leaders have approved plans for the new Sir Bobby Robson Institute, which it is hoped will become a world-leading facility for groundbreaking innovations in cancer treatment that could help people around the globe.

The centre will bring together the existing Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre, which was opened by the former Newcastle United manager just months before his death in 2009, and the Freeman's cancer and blood disorders research team.

Construction will start early next year on the purpose-built trials facility, which was granted permission by Newcastle City Council's planning committee on Friday and should be open in 2028.

Supporters of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, part of Newcastle Hospitals Charity, have already raised £20 million for the development and a fundraising campaign is being launched to secure the final £10 million needed.

Councillors heard on Friday morning how the foundation's existing centre had produced enormous benefit" in the evolution of cancer treatment, but had outgrown its current space and been forced to reject some research programmes due to a lack of capacity.