Last month, NHS England came to film with one of our patients, Julie Lawford, about her experience of having the new injectable form of pembrolizumab (Keytruda), an immunotherapy jab used in the treatment of cancer. The rollout of the jab means that treatment time is significantly reduced from what used to take (around three hours) to about 30 minutes.

Julie was diagnosed with incurable cancer last July and has been coming to the Greenlea Unit at HRI every three weeks since. Speaking about the jab on the film, Julie said: “It’s a one minute injection as opposed to a 30 or 40 minute drip. So it frees up staff time and it frees up my time, which is all the more valuable now.”

Oncology Pharmacist, Milly Finch, has been a key part of the rollout at CHFT and said: “This injection has been incredible in improving the experience of treatment for our cancer patients. It can be used to treat many different types of cancer and is injected just under the skin, meaning our patients can spend less time in hospital.”

You can watch the full film on the NHS North East and Yorkshire YouTube channel, which also includes some colleagues involved in the national rollout from NHS England.