Sir Bobby launched his Foundation in 2008 after a request for help from his oncologist Professor Ruth Plummer MBE.
Professor Plummer was treating Sir Bobby as he faced cancer for the fifth – and what he knew would be the final time. She needed to raise £500,000 to equip a new cancer drug trials centre at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care in Newcastle and asked him if he knew anyone who might like to donate.
Sir Bobby responded by launching a charity to get the money she needed. He described it as “like being at the helm of a team again.” What he called his “last and greatest team.”
The reaction to his appeal for help was incredible and just seven weeks after the Foundation launched Professor Plummer had the £500,000 she needed.
In February 2009, Sir Bobby officially opened the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre. He was very proud that the centre carried his name.
Sir Bobby said he would give up a year of his life to his Foundation. In fact, he became so passionate about it that, despite being very ill, he spent his last 18 months doing all he could to raise funds to help others facing cancer. He said he hoped it would become his legacy.
After Sir Bobby died, his widow, Lady Elsie and their three sons Paul, Andrew and Mark, reaffirmed their commitment to continuing the Foundation’s work.
The Robson family are excited that the ambitious next goal for the Foundation, the creation of the Sir Bobby Robson Institute, continues to build on Sir Bobby’s vision for world class cancer care and treatment for the people of the North East and Cumbria and it is scheduled to open in 2028.
Visit here to find out more about this latest and largest fundraising project ever undertaken by the Charity.
Timeline
2008 – The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation is launched as a fund within Newcastle Hospitals Charity. £500,00 raised after only seven weeks.
2009 – Sir Bobby proudly opens the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre within the Northern Centre for Cancer Care supported by The Football Association and Fabio Capello, then England men’s manager.
2010 –The Foundation contributes £625,000 to purchase an ultra-compact cyclotron to help with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other serious diseases. Only the second of its type in the world.
2012 – An £850,000 contribution from the Foundation helps bring state-of-the-art ‘cyber surgery’ to the Northern Centre for Cancer Care to dramatically improve the accuracy of radiotherapy treatment delivery.
2013 – The Foundation contributes £438,000 to buy an ImageStream Imaging Flow Cytometer that allows scientists to see cancer cells that may be circulating in a patient’s blood and is able to analyse up to 4,000 individual cells a second.
2016 – Just eight years after its launch, the Foundation breaks though the £10million fundraising barrier thanks to enormous support from individuals affected by cancer, businesses and the football community.
2016 – The Foundation makes its largest contribution to date, £999,161, to fund four clinical research and nursing posts within the Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer Unit, based at the Great North Children’s Hospital, to improve access to new cancer drugs for children and young people.
2017 – A new eye evaluation suite for assessing the health of patients undergoing trials of cancer drugs and featuring technology also found on the International Space Station, is funded with help from the Foundation’s £120,000 contribution.
2017 – A contribution of £892,000 funds the cutting-edge PROSPECT-NE genome sequencing project, which evolves to become TARGET National, a national research study that uses a blood test to match patients with the right clinical trial for them by analysing the genetic characteristics of their cancer.
2018 – Support from the Foundation for the Complementary Therapy Service at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care reaches the £136,000 mark and a dedicated Complementary Therapy Suite is opened close to the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre.
2019 – A contribution of £985,000 funds the revolutionary bowel cancer research project, COLO-SPEED, providing the infrastructure and resources to deliver new research efficiently.
2019 – The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation Clinical Trials Design Team is created with a £433,838 grant, to help answer complex questions about cancer by ensuring research is designed in the best way possible.
2020 – The Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care is the only early phase cancer clinical trials units nationally to remain open continually throughout the COVID-19 crisis.
2021 – More than 24,000 patients at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care have benefited from treatments including reflexology, massage, gentle touch therapy, mindfulness and supportive listening supported by Foundation funding over the last 16 years.
2021 – Despite the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, paediatric oncology treatment continues at the Great North Children’s Hospital and trials of new treatments are driven forward by the Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer Unit.
2022 – Professor Ruth Plummer, Director of the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre, is made an MBE in the Queen’s Jubilee birthday honours list for services to Medicine.
2023 – What would have been Sir Bobby’s 90th birthday is celebrated at the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre, which continues to be partially staffed though Foundation funding.
2024 – Then England men’s football manager, Gareth Southgate, visits the Sir Bobby Robson Centre and meets patients on clinical trials.
2025 – The Foundation announces a campaign to raise £10m towards the construction of The Sir Bobby Robson Institute, with £20m already raised through the generosity of SBRF supporters.
2026 – Construction of the Institute to begin at the Freeman Hospital.
2028 – The Institute is due to be opened.
