Cancer treatment - Manchester or Royal Marsden

[GuacamoleParty]

I am receiving treatment for a very rare type of cancer; in the UK it is only handled at particular speacilist centres. I don't want to go into heaps of detail but I am not happy with the care at my current hospital, so I'm going to ask to be referred elsewhere. I am weighing up Manchester and Royal Marsden. Manchester is closer, but RM seems to have a really excellent reputation. Has anyone experienced either for cancer care and have any thoughts or experiences?

The Marsden. My mum died of pancreatic cancer and the Christie were not great. I think if you're on a trial or have an interesting cancer they may be better (different funding pathways and clinicians) but for bog standard palliative care there was perhaps an overworked workforce leading to loss of empathy. And I work in cancer services so I knew where to push and what to ask for.
Good luck and sure you'll get lots of support and good advice on here x

Closer to you. If both Manchester and the Marsden are specialist centres then they will be doing the same thing.

The Marsden is very good at publicity compared to other specialist centres doing exactly the same thing at the same level of quality. And yes, I work with the Marsden on a daily basis. Even in London they aren't always the national centre of excellence for particular cancers.

If you are having treatment and feeling like shite, think about how much you are going to want to schlep half way across the country to the Marsden.

Your nearest specialist centre will be much better and they will know all the people at all the other specialist centres anyway so if you whould have something elsewhere, they will let you know.

@AnnaMagnani I appreciate what you're saying but I'm currently having treatment at my closest speacilist centre and it's been awful. They have made a few errors which would have slipped by if I wasn't so on the ball with reading up and asking for advice elsewhere. I'm therefore willing to travel to get the best care possible.

@Frazzle76 so sorry to hear about your mum. Thanks for your comment.

I am so sorry to hear about your experience. Unfortunately no centre is perfect and working with patients for whom the Marsden is their local centre, some of them would probably say the same as you - I hear from patients who love it, hate it and everything in between.

And the same for every other specialist centre I've had dealings with, it really is about if you like your centre or not.

But when you are really really down, being hundreds of miles away from your specialist is a big problem.

Hi, I’m sorry to hear you are going through this. My dm was looked after at The Marsden and they were fantastic.

Depends on the cancer, my late DH had a very rare cancer which was dealt with incredibly by the marsden although he also had a couple of consults with the Christie for things. Most important is finding the expert in the cancer rather than the hospital.