We've teamed up with UCAN on a joint £2.5m fundraising appeal to create a clinical unit designed to improve diagnosis times for urological cancers.

The SURE Unit will be located within Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and will enable more people with a suspected urological cancer to be seen quicker, and to have all their scans and diagnostic tests carried out during a single visit to hospital.

The unit’s name is an acronym for Swift Urological Response and Evaluation.

Plans for the unit, which includes a fit-out, new services and extra staffing, are not currently covered by the NHS, prompting UCAN and Friends of ANCHOR to step in.

One in every five men will be diagnosed with a urological cancer, which includes prostate, penis and testicular cancer as well as kidney and bladder. If cancer is diagnosed too late, it can advance to a stage where it cannot be cured – and current waiting times are too long.

The combined fundraising effort by Friends of ANCHOR and UCAN will set up the facility, which will be used by both men and women.

As well as furnishing the unit, the fundraising will allow for the purchase of diagnostic equipment – and it will ensure additional staff are drafted in, removing the bottlenecks and streamlining the patient pathway. The joint commitment by the charities will stand for the first three years of operation, after which NHS Grampian will take on the running costs. 

Surgery capacity will be improved thanks to increased adoption of an innovative new laser treatment which can be done using local anaesthetic rather than general. The procedure, known as TULA, takes 15 minutes and patients can go home the same day.

Friends of ANCHOR, which is known for its complementary therapies but also funds equipment and research, will have a daily presence in the unit.

Thank you for your support, which makes this unique collaboration for patients possible.