Construction work has started on Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital’s new Children’s Cancer Centre.

After four months of expert work to deconstruct an existing building on the site, building contractor, Sisk, has started the main construction of the facility.

This begins with the basement and excavation and then it will be onwards and upwards until the world-leading new centre is complete.

At a recent ground-breaking event, hospital staff were joined by principal donor, John Grayken; the Saïd family, long-time GOSH Charity supporters and former GOSH family; Public Health and Prevention Minister, Ashley Dalton MP; Mat Shaw, GOSH chief executive; Louise Parkes, chief executive of GOSH Charity; and other donors and supporters of GOSH Charity’s Build It. Beat It. appeal.

The appeal is aiming to raise £300m to help build the centre, deliver transformation in cancer care, advance research, and save lives.

Shaw said: “The Children’s Cancer Centre will make a difference to every child who comes to GOSH, and particularly it will help us advance how we care and treat children who have rare and complex cancers.

“This new facility will help us realise our ambitions so we can match the amazing work of our clinicians with buildings and infrastructure that makes it easy for them to be their best.”

With a 20% increase in capacity, digitally-advanced inpatient wards, and a new hospital school, the centre will transform cancer care at GOSH.

Alongside these developments, the centre also enables the hospital to expand its theatres, imaging, and critical care facilities use by all specialities and create a new main entrance for the whole hospital.

Dalton said: “The hospital is a symbol of what we can achieve when we combine the excellence of our NHS people, innovative technologies, ground-breaking treatment, and world-class research.

“As someone living with cancer myself, I know how terrifying a diagnosis can be – and when it happens to our children, that’s unimaginable.

“These families deserve a government that is backing them every step of the way, which is why we have relaunched the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce and will ensure children’s cancer is at the forefront of our Plan for Change.”