By Kymberly Martin
With $1.5m donation
The Sony Foundation has opened its first You Can youth cancer centre in Melbourne at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Around 500 young cancer patients will have access each year to this youth-focused, high-tech centre, the new home for Victoria’s Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Service – ON Trac at Peter Mac.
Through You Can, the Sony Foundation is building specialist youth cancer centres to provide young cancer patients with a haven within a hospital, Sony Foundation CEO, Sophie Ryan said.
“This age group are often lost in the gap in healthcare. Too old for children’s hospitals yet too young for adult wards, and research demonstrates that age-appropriate care for this age group is urgently needed,” she said.
The centre includes a lounge, fully-equipped kitchen, entertainment rooms and dedicated spaces for study, consultations, counselling, recreation and group activities. Outfitted with the latest Sony technology, the You Can centre provides an area for young patients to continue their life outside cancer. It also has four outpatient clinical consultation and interview rooms, a multi-disciplinary video conferencing and meeting room, four inpatient rooms and a six-bed chemotherapy bay.
Sony Foundation Ambassador Natalie Bassingthwaighte with Sony Foundation Chairman John Kirby (photo credit: Jim Lee)
ON Trac at Peter Mac provides a range of clinical services for young people, a state-wide consultation service, a professional development, training and education program for healthcare professionals and a comprehensive research program.
A You Can centre has also been established at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth and a third centre is currently being built at the Nelune Comprehensive Cancer Centre at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney.