Suzanne becomes Royal Surrey's latest Prostate Cancer UK Champion
Congratulations to Suzanne Langley, Brachytherapy Nurse Specialist, who has become the latest clinician in Royal Surrey's Stokes Centre for Urology to be appointed a Prostate Cancer UK Champion.
Suzanne was encouraged to join the cancer charity’s leadership programme, which runs for 18 months, by colleagues in the Prostate Cancer team, Consultant Wissam Abou-Chedid and Clinical Nurse Specialist Maria Innes who were appointed to previous cohorts.
She joins 20 other multi-disciplinary clinicians from across the country aiming to improve prostate cancer care for patients.
Suzanne said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be appointed as a Prostate Cancer UK Champion and it will be a great opportunity to learn from others working in this area. I can bring back information and ideas that we can use to improve patient outcomes and experience at Royal Surrey.”
As part of her application to join the programme, Suzanne put forward a project idea focused on simplifying the process of treating patients with urethral strictures.
Urethral strictures are a build-up of scar tissue in the urethra, which is the tube that empties urine from the bladder, and they are sometimes a side effect of radiotherapy or brachytherapy treatment.
“Although the strictures only affect around 5 per cent of our prostate cancer patients, they do cause urinary discomfort and distress,” Suzanne explained.
She added: “My project aims to set up a one-stop clinic where our patients come for assessment and if we think that they have a stricture, while they’re with us at that appointment, I can pass a scope into their bladder and dilate it to relieve the discomfort from the strictures. So the patient’s assessment and treatment can be delivered in the one visit, rather than the patient coming back for two or maybe three appointments.
“We’re very keen to come up with ideas to help make life as easy as possible for our cancer patients and so I’m excited about this project and about learning more from other experts in the field.”