At a social function held recently in Tenby, coinciding with the Children in Need appeal and jointly arranged by the South Pembrokeshire Ploughing Association and the Welsh Ploughing Association, the presentation was made of a substantial cheque to aid cancer and leukemia research in young people.

The funds donated represented the proceeds of the locally held European Vintage Ploughing Championships at Stackpole two months ago.

The urgent need to support LATCH was fully appreciated across South Pembrokeshire earlier in the year when two very young children were diagnosed with leukaemia and needed specialized treatment which remains ongoing.

LATCH was formed more than 30 years ago by a group of families and friends of the children’s oncology unit based in Llandough Hospital who recognised that the children diagnosed with cancer or leukaemia and their families not only needed medical support, but also social and welfare support to ease the huge financial and emotional burden placed on families with a child on treatment.

They named the charity LATCH as an acronym of: Llandough Aims to Treat Children with Cancer and Leukaemia with Hope.

Children can be in hospital for weeks, if not months, at a time and it is essential to their well being that they have their families close by so the first major project LATCH embarked upon was the provision of parent accommodation in the grounds of the hospital.

It was also recognised that there was a need to look after children in the community whilst they were on treatment and, particularly, if they had been diagnosed as terminally ill. LATCH funded the first two community nurses who liaised with GP’s and schools, also administering intensive treatment in the home and provided terminal care when required, and soon after launched its appeal for a new 10-bedded hospital unit with clean air facilities.

LATCH’s appeal subsequently turned out to be for a two-storey unit providing ten beds downstairs for younger children and five beds upstairs for teenagers. The cost to LATCH was £800,000.

LATCH has also funded a pioneering doctor’s post that specialises in palliative medicine for children. The aim of this post is to provide support and advice to GPs, community nurses and other members of the home care team to ensure the children who, sadly, cannot be cured, die as peacefully and as free from pain as possible in their own homes.

The paediatric oncology unit has more frecently been relocated to the new children’s hospital for Wales and the charity then launched a successful campaign to raise yet another £800,000 to build an extra storey on the new hospital building to provide parents’ accommodation and a dedicated outpatient unit.

The new oncology ward was named after Dr. Eileen Thompson in recognition of her outstanding commitment and dedication over the 25 years that she was involved with LATCH.

Friends of LATCH, Bill and Dot Morgan, of Llandybie, were present to accept the cheque of £500 from members of the South Pembrokeshire Ploughing Committee: George Cole, Gordon Harries, Richard Prout, Michael Colley, Andrew Mathias and Jay Gibby.