What our members do in their jobs

Our membership includes a wide variety of professions which are involved in the treatment of childhood cancer.

There are not only consultants, doctors and nurses but also surgeons, pharmacists, play specialists, psychologists and dietitians.

This ensures that CCLG as an organisation covers all clinical areas and expertise so that it can offer a multidisciplinary response within its activities. All of our members work within a national network of 21 specialist hospitals for treating children and young people with cancer called 'Principal Treatment Centres'.

View a map of the Principal Treatment Centres

Find out more about the roles of our members within the hospital team

My job is to treat cancer patients and to coordinate their care pathway. This means that as well as treating patients, administering chemotherapy and working closely with the radiotherapy and surgical teams, my job is to also ensure that every one of our patients receives the best possible care from the moment they are diagnosed. For example, it is my duty to look after the children having treatment on the ward as well as ensuring that patients who have gone home, and no longer need treatment, are still provided for. This may mean liaising with other NHS Trusts to ensure the patient has checkups as an adult outpatient or ensuring that a child is integrated back into normal paediatric care and education.

Dr Martin English, Consultant Paediatric Oncologist and CCLG member

On the one hand doing research into childhood cancer can be incredibly frustrating. If you’re running a trial where you need 100 patients with a specific cancer type and who are receiving a particular drug to get meaningful results for a study, it can take several years to recruit all the patients because children’s cancer is fortunately relatively rare. But when the findings have an impact on how children are treated, it’s really good. The satisfaction of knowing that you’re making a difference to even a small number of children is something that I really value in my job."

Dr Gareth Veal, Researcher and CCLG member

I’m often asked whether being a paediatric oncologist is depressing. It isn’t, because we can cure two thirds to eighty per cent of children. That’s incredible considering that only a generation ago, the majority of children with cancer died. But in the end, it doesn’t matter who finds a cure – the key thing is that somebody finds it.

Professor Josef Vormoor, Consultant Paediatric Oncologist and CCLG member