Using money raised last year by a 10-strong team from Chorley’s BNI Endeavour business networking group, which raised sponsorship by completing the National Three Peaks Challenge (summit Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Mount Snowdon within 24 hours), we have bought a portable PD03 Helium Leak Detector for the engineers working in Radiotherapy Physics at the cancer centre.
It is their job to keep the Radiotherapy Department’s eight linear accelerators (LINACs), the machines that deliver radiotherapy, in top working order so that they can treat 240 cancer patients a day five days a week. At times, this involves replacing components within the LINACs’ vacuum systems.
Senior radiotherapy engineer Robert Speakman explained: “It is critical to ensure a good seal is made.
“Re-establishing vacuum is a lengthy process and if a small leak is present, which is often the case, the system must be brought back to atmosphere and the component re-fitted. Without a helium link detector, poor vacuum seals can take days to find and rectify, putting the LINAC in downtime.”
Robert continued: “Delays caused by downtime can result in postponement or cancelations to patient treatment, increasing patient anxiety. For every hour a LINAC is down, three patients will have their treatment deferred.
“Although this is usually to later the same day, it results in several staff having to work over-time as the treatment is transferred to another LINAC, which has already been used to treat its daily rota of patients. Typically, the staff team’s over-time costs will be £179 per hour.
“By having the helium link detector, we can verify we have no vacuum leaks before we go to re-assembly, reducing the risk of downtime every time.”
Thanks so much to all of the BNI team for raising these funds to supply such an important piece of kit!