University of Worcester Arena to Light-Up Red for Blood Cancer Awareness Month

The University of Worcester Arena will be lit red on September 11 in support of a major campaign to raise awareness of leukaemia.

The Arena is one of a number of buildings across the UK that will light up throughout September, which is Blood Cancer Awareness Month.

National blood cancer charity, Leukaemia Care, has organised the lighting of well-known buildings as part of its Spot Leukaemia campaign.

Director of Patient Advocacy for the Charity, Zach Pemberton-Whiteley, said: “We’re delighted that the University of Worcester Arena has agreed to turn red on September 11. This is part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that people are more aware of the vague symptoms of leukaemia which can often be mistaken for other common illnesses, such as the flu.”

Blood Cancer Awareness Month takes place each September and is a chance for patients, charities and healthcare professionals to raise awareness and share stories of their experience of blood cancer.

April White, Arena Operations and Engagement Manager at the University, said: “We are pleased to be able to support Leukaemia Care’s campaign during Blood Cancer Awareness Month by lighting the Arena red for a day. It fits well with the University’s chosen Charity of the Year, Cure Leukaemia, which is also a blood cancer charity.”

Cure Leukaemia was selected as the University’s Charity of the Year after staff heard about the remarkable story of University of Worcester nursing graduate, Brooke Evans, who now works as a haematology nurse at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, on the same floor in the building where she received life-saving treatment five years earlier.

Thanks to a clinical trial, Brooke, who was receiving treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, went into remission and has since become a champion for the charity, raising awareness of the disease and raising thousands of pounds.

She is taking part in the charity’s 300-mile bike ride from London to Paris from September 12-15 also as part of Blood Cancer Awareness Month.

To find out more about the #SpotLeukaemia campaign and to take the free leukaemia awareness course, head to www.spotleukaemia.co.uk