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 “You’re two and a half miles up and you’re head first – it’s terrifying,” says Jeanne Turpin, who has just raised £2,300 in a sponsored parachute jump for the trust’s melanoma research fund. This courageous woman, who has terminal melanoma, is determined to do all she can to ensure others avoid her fate.
“I want to highlight the dangers of sunbathing because most people don’t know how dangerous it can be – particularly for fair people like myself.” In the six years since she was first diagnosed, she’s been travelling the two-hour journey from Stansted, where she lives to the Royal Free and the Royal Marsden in the hope of being among the first to benefit from trials being carried out. She’s been through chemotherapy and operations on her lymph gland and small bowel. “I couldn’t have asked for better service. The Royal Free has been excellent.” She pays special tribute to Dr Chao, her oncologist, who was recommended by her local hospital and her nurse specialist, Kelly Griffiths. Her positive attitude is helping her get the most out of life - “I just want to get on with life and enjoy it” - and she continues to work at a local catering supplies company. Ends Notes to editors 1) For further information contact: Fiona Cordy, communications officer, Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust, 020 7317 7590, fiona.cordy@royalfree.nhs.uk 2) The Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust has around 900 beds and sees about 700,000 patients a year from all over the world. We employ around 4,600 people and have a turnover of about £450m. Our services include a major accident and emergency service, all branches of surgery and medicine, a renal service serving the whole of north London, paediatrics, maternity services, care of elderly people, an adolescent psychiatric service and one of two high security infectious diseases units in the country. We are renowned for our specialist services including liver, kidney and bone marrow transplantation, renal, AIDS/HIV, infectious diseases, plastic surgery, immunology, paediatric gastroenterology, ENT surgery and audiological medicine, amyloidosis and scleroderma. We are a leading cancer centre with a range of specialist diagnostic and treatment services in oncology and haematology and a major neuroscience base with a network extending throughout north London and into the Home Counties. There are associated internationally recognised research and training programmes.
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