Robbie the Robot Appeal

The DaVinci Robot, affectionately known as Robbie, located in the Royal Berkshire Hospital is in desperate need of funds. £1 million has to be raised to keep Robbie operating and we are very quickly running out of time.
Robbie provides the latest in state of the art robotic assisted surgery which allows surgeons to perform radical surgery on various forms of cancer, predominantly prostate cancer (which already directly affects 1 in 12 males in the UK and this figure is increasing by 5% a year), using all the clinical and technical capabilities of traditional open surgery whilst enabling them to operate through the tiny incisions which characterise "keyhole" surgery.

    

The benefit of using Robbie over traditional open surgery:
Robbie works on such an intricate level that it dramatically reduces the risk of complications during surgery and in prostate cancer patients lowers the risk of post-op impotence and incontinence. Creating smaller incisions minimizes blood loss, reduces scarring, lowers the risk of wound infection and causes less pain and trauma to the patient thus speeding up the recovery period allowing patients to return to normality sooner.

Robbie is pioneering the way for the future of surgery:
There are only 3 NHS hospitals in the south of England which have this facility. If we can raise £1,000,000 over the next years not only will Robbie stay at the Royal Berkshire Hospital but we can expand the use of the robot into other areas of the hospital such as gynecology where it can be used to treat ovarian and cervical cancer and carry out emergency hysterectomies. It has already been used to perform bowel resections after colon cancer, bladder removal, kidney removal and it could also be used to treat thyroid and throat cancer patients (also including all forms of delicate operations on children) in fact Robbie can replace any operation which at the present time is done by keyhole surgery and achieve a more successful outcome as stated above.
The Royal Berkshire Hospital are honored to have two of the top surgeons in this field of surgery and already train surgeons from across the country in the use of the DaVinci robot, which in turn allow more cancer patients to receive the same high quality treatment. Keeping Robbie will give this hospital a chance to become the national centre of excellence; this will not only benefit Berkshire but the rest of the UK.

Donations may be sent to:
32 The Close,
Burghfield Common,
Reading,
Berkshire.
RG7 3HT.
Cheques made payable to: fund-raising for causes.

Registered charity number - 1052720