Select Page

The difference we make

Your donations directly benefit those affected by neurological conditions. Over the past 38 years your support has made a huge difference to services and research at Queen Square.

Thanks to you, more than £47m has been raised from legacies, fundraisers, grant-making trusts, companies and community groups. Here are just some of the projects we have funded:

Operating Theatres

As part of a major £24m upgrade of the existing theatre suites and the creation of two new theatres, we raised £4m to fully fund the creation of a new specialist Complex Spinal Theatre,  alongside education and office facilities for neurosurgeons.

The Molly Lane Fox Unit

Originally opened in March 2011 after raising £2.5m for the Brain Tumour Unit project as a whole. This unique facility put The National Hospital at the forefront in diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with brain cancer. The unit has been such a success that in 2017 we raised another £670,000 to double the unit’s size so that more patients can now access the unique services on offer, including taking part in pioneering trials with the aim of discovering breakthrough treatments for brain tumours.

Advanced Neuroimaging Suite

Completed at a total cost of £14 million, our £6m funding helped to buy specialist MRI scanner and the neuronavigational BrainSuite system – which provides real-time scanning of the brain and spine during surgery and innovative treatments  to patients with complex neurological conditions.

Neurorehabilitation Unit

Conditions such as strokes, multiple sclerosis, brain tumours, Parkinson’s disease, and spinal cord injuries can leave patients without the most basic skills. The larger, more advanced rehabilitation unit at The National Hospital now helps patients to deal with these limitations and return to their homes, equipped to cope with day-to-day life as independently as possible. We raised £5m for this vital project.

Clinical Neurosciences Centre

We raised £3m so that the researchers and clinicians from The National Hospital and the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology can work under one roof, which houses both outpatient and research facilities. The building at 33 Queen Square is critical to the running of The National Hospital – it brings together three vital elements: research, teaching and clinical practice.

Dementia Research Centre

We raised £2.4m to help establish the centre, which aims to trial new drugs and treatments to slow the progression of dementia. Breakthroughs include identifying the first Alzheimer’s gene and pioneering magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to improve diagnosis and track progression of the disease. Now, the main focus of the centre is on the five rarer dementias which tend to affect people at a younger age than Alzheimer’s.

The Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases

The centre accommodates a large team of experts, research facilities and specialised systems to support the development of new treatments for conditions such as spinal muscular atrophy, motor neurone diseases, myasthenia gravis and muscular dystrophy. We raised £1.4m to help create the centre.

Neuroimaging Analysis Centre

In the past five years, the number of patients admitted annually to The National Hospital exceeded 100,000. This increased demand has a major impact on the services provided by our neuroradiology team which carries out more than 47,000 examinations and diagnostic reports each year. We raised £1.3m to help set up a new centre which benefits patients suffering with conditions ranging from Parkinson’s and Prion disease to neuromuscular and neurodegenerative conditions including dementia, as well as brain cancer and stroke.

Neurocritical Care Unit

The unit is the largest dedicated medical and surgical intensive care unit in the UK for neuro injuries and conditions, providing state-of-the-art facilities for critically ill patients – especially those with brain injuries and brain haemorrhage as well as both common and rare neurological diseases that require respiratory support. Around £1m was raised to support it.

Rockefeller Medical Library – Future Library Project

The library receives 30-40,000 visits every year from the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, the National Hospital, UCL, UCLH and beyond and its web pages are accessed more than 22,000 times each month. This project – for which we raised £500,000 – marked a real turning point for the library providing on-site training facilities, a purpose-built archive and a museum.

Pain Management Centre

Nearly one in five people has a problem with chronic pain. Staff at the Pain Management Centre see more than 10,000 patients each year. Unlike many other centres, the team at The National take a multi-disciplinary approach involving psychologists, physiotherapists, nurses and doctors to explain the underlying condition and offer a range of possible treatments. The aim is to focus on goals that matter to people: like being able to work or play football with your child. We raised £350,000 to support its important work.

Where Next

Home For Neuroscience
RDS Centre
The difference we make

Get the latest news from The National Brain Appeal

GET IN TOUCH

Address

The National Brain Appeal
3rd Floor
Ormond House
26/27 Boswell Street
London WC1N 3JZ

020 3448 4724
info@nationalbrainappeal.org

Press enquiries

marie.mangan@nhs.net

 

Registered Charity No. 290173. A limited company registered in England. No. 01844281