While many NHS hospitals provide massage therapy for patients with cancer, we’re the only one in the UK providing a hospital-wide clinical massage service for all patients. Our specialist complementary therapy team assists patient recovery and rehabilitation, as well as making a positive contribution to patients’ emotional wellbeing.
About us
Supporting our hospitals, NHS colleagues, patients and researchers
We focus support on four core areas
Services we provide
Complementary therapy
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How we help
Complementary therapy massage
We offer complementary therapies to enhance the Royal Free London’s care for its patients and support for its staff.
Support hub
We’re the only NHS charity in the UK delivering a hospital-based welfare rights and benefits advice service for patients. We help patients and staff to access benefits and support they are entitled to and we actively prevent homelessness.
We bring people together in peer support groups, most notably supporting amputees to adapt to life with limb loss.
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£800kwon for our clients last year through advocacy and support
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1stservice of its kind to be provided in-house in an NHS hosptial
We also bring people together in peer support groups, most notably supporting amputees to adapt to life with limb loss.
Volunteering
Our 472 volunteers and 17 pet therapy dogs make a direct and meaningful contribution to patient outcomes. There are 20 distinct volunteer roles ranging from the everyday to the innovative.
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472volunteers across our sites
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20different volunteer roles
Volunteering roles include traditional services – helping patients to get to their appointments on time, providing mealtime help to patients and running a daily trolley shop service – and roles that have been designed to meet a specific need and are unique to the Royal Free London community.
These include delivering virtual reality therapy to staff and to patients receiving chemotherapy and supporting patients who lack digital skills, making sure they can access online appointments.
Young volunteers
We were the first NHS charity in the UK to lower the age for volunteers when we designed our young volunteering programme.
This helps young people in our local communities who want to pursue a career in healthcare. We are now developing that programme to support the children of Royal Free London employees and young people with additional needs. This includes young autistic people and those with learning disabilities.
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Get involved
Young volunteers programme
Providing local 16- to 22-year-olds with the opportunity to volunteer in a hospital setting, develop new skills and to learn about the NHS.
What we fund
We go beyond the limitations of NHS funding to buy equipment and support projects that impact positively on staff wellbeing and patient outcomes.
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News26 January 2024
UK first as new cancer scanner comes to the Royal Free London
Patients will be the first in the UK to benefit from a revolutionary new scanner which will deliver more accurate and faster diagnoses.
We support research activity that sees patients benefit from findings quickly and safely. Our support for early-stage research projects means researchers have a strong evidence base when applying to larger health research funders. And we support the research leaders of the future by investing in clinical research training programmes for postgraduates, including funding PhDs.
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News17 April 2024
Charity-funded research could lead to new lung scarring treatment
Scientists at the Royal Free Hospital are exploring new treatments for lung scarring thanks to a research grant from the Royal Free Charity.
We work beyond the confines of our hospitals to reach more people across north London. This includes grant funding awarded for projects to improve outcomes for people with cancer.
- We awarded a £360,000 grant to a joint initiative by RFL and North Mid to target geographical hotspots for cancer and cardiovascular disease. The project will help prevent cancer and other long-term conditions by using every opportunity to help patients to adopt healthier habits.
- We’ve awarded £350,000 to a project by the North London Mental Health Partnership, to make it easier for people with learning disabilities to access cancer screening.
- We led the delivery of a £735k project, funded by NHS Charities Together, to tackle health inequalities linked to the pandemic in Haringey, Edmonton and Tottenham. We designed the initiative in response to the variations in health outcomes and life expectancy across north London which strongly correlate with deprivation and ethnicity.