Published on 26 June 2025
A Cancer Alliance initiative has been shortlisted for three prestigious healthcare awards.
The Urgent Cancer Care (UCC) programme – a UK-leading project by Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance (CMCA) supported by The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust (CCC) – is a finalist in three categories of the Nursing Times (NT) Awards 2025.
UCC is an important element of many cancer patients’ journeys, addressing the unplanned care needs of those people who become unwell due to a new emergency diagnosis of cancer, side effects of cancer treatment, or worsening symptoms related to cancer progression and other comorbidities.
The programme – the only one of its kind in the country – has been shortlisted for three NT awards: Team of the Year, Critical and Emergency Care Nursing Award and an Ingrid Fuchs Cancer Nursing Award.
CMCA recently published a UCC strategy and the vision and mission for transforming UCC is to ensure that all cancer patients in Cheshire and Merseyside with urgent care needs receive timely, effective, and equitable treatment. The goal is to seamlessly integrate oncology and urgent care teams, enhancing outcomes through education, advanced protocols, and continuous data-driven innovation.
CMCA’s Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) Joan Spencer, who is also Chief Executive at CCC, has been shortlisted in the Nurse Leader of the Year category.
Joan was a cancer nurse before moving into management and joined CCC in 2014 as General Manager of Chemotherapy. She was appointed CCC’s Interim Chief Executive and SRO at the Cancer Alliance in March 2025.
CCC’s Alison Taylor, Nurse Consultant in Acute Oncology, has been shortlisted as Nurse of the Year and enhanced supportive care for hepato-pancreato-biliary cancer patients – initiated by Sinead Benson, Clinical Nurse Specialist in Palliative Care – has been shortlisted for the Ingrid Fuchs Cancer Nursing Award.
Jon Hayes, Managing Director of CMCA, said: “CMCA is the first cancer alliance in the country to acknowledge UCC as a priority, develop a strategy and fund a UCC improvement programme.
“Over the last 12 months, the Cancer Alliance has made substantial progress in transforming UCC across Cheshire and Merseyside and we are delighted that the hard work by our UCC team, and those we have partnered in other organisations across the sub-region, has been recognised – not only once but three times.
“I would also like to congratulate Joan, who is an inspiring leader who brings a wealth of experience from many years of working with cancer patients to her current role.”
The shortlisted entries will now go forward to the winners’ ceremony, which will be held in London on October 22nd.