Three years following his death, one of Adam Evans-Thomas's wishes to see a room in the new Transplant Unit in University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, has reached fruition!
On Tuesday, December 18, before Christmas, a number of members from Adam's Bucketful of Hope Appeal, including patient representatives, travelled to Cardiff to see the high dependency room called 'The Pembrokeshire Room'.
The new Transplant Unit and ward is a very impressive, modern area. The sealed sterile ward is fitted with specialist medical air conditioning which ensures that the patients are comfortable in all seasons and are not exposed to any particles floating in the air that could carry bacteria when they are in their most susceptible state.
The impressive 'Pembrokeshire Room' is equipped with the latest technological equipment built into the room and the hospital feel is lost with the attractive décor and fabrics used.
The visitors were treated to a warm welcome and tour of the ward in small numbers by the doctors and nurses who had cared for Adam and later Lady Webb, trust director, thanked Adam's parents, family and friends for their hard work and thoughtfulness in continuing what Adam had started before his death.
The day was an emotional one for Adam's family. His mother commented: "It's been a long journey, but seeing the plaque on the door made some sense of his short life - he has left his footprint, although a tiny one in the scale of things, but one that faces forward - moving from the past towards a far better future for those that follow him."
The appeal has run since Adam's death and April 2007 should have seen the completion of a new state-of-the-art Cancer Care Day Unit in Withybush Hospital.
Originally, the old ITU area was going to be the new site of the unit. Plans were drawn and a completion date of April 2007 was confidently given.
After many consultations and redrawing of the plans, it soon became clear that it was a case of trying to fit a pint into a half-pint pot. It was decided that building a unit that would be too small on completion was not acceptable and so other larger sites were investigated.
In the meantime, the hospital went through an alarming stage of being threatened with closure. The Bucketful of Hope Appeal sought reassurances in writing that the Cancer Care Day Unit was not threatened. This given, at a meeting in May 2007, all fears were allayed and the appeal members were told of the new, exciting plans for the unit.
The new site is very much larger and is at present being looked at by the architects, medical technicians and staff to ensure that every demand required from a state-of-the-art unit is met.
The new plans will be unveiled the middle of March 2008 on the appeal website: http://www.bucketfulofhope.co.uk">www.bucketfulofhope.co.uk. and on the 'Wall of Hope' situated in the foyer of the hospital.
Because of the extensive building work that is being carried out on the Withybush site at present, the completion date of the new unit has been given as April 2009. The Bucketful of Hope Appeal committee has pledged to keep on fund-raising until Adam's final wish is completed and Pembrokeshire has its new state-of-the-art Cancer Care Day Unit.