13th November 2023

A new ground-breaking research facility is now open at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children (BRHC).

The research centre ‘The Coral Reef’ was formally opened on 9^th November 2023 after we reached our fundraising target for the new facility.

We launched the South West Children’s Research Appeal in May, bringing funding to over £700,000. 

Thanks to the new facility, which opens to patients next week, the research team at BRHC will be able to take on 30% more research projects and increase patient numbers by around 1,200 every year.

For many of these patients, this will mean they no longer have to make a trip elsewhere in the country for potentially curative treatment.

Paul Kearney, chief executive of Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity, said: “Thanks to the people of Bristol and the South West who have generously donated to the South West Children’s Research Appeal, we’ve given hope to thousands of families.

The new research facility will improve thousands of lives today, tomorrow and well into the future.”

With the support of a focus group made up of young patients, the facility has been created with children in mind and will aim to feel like a home-from-home for patients.

It has been decorated with artwork created by Chris Dickason, the Bristol-based illustrator behind the Bristol Aquarium window art and will feature soothing and calming colours.

Professor A.V.Ramanan, consultant rheumatologist at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and professor of paediatric rheumatology, said: "This research facility will leave an important legacy for the future. It will enable us to participate in trials which can be life transforming and potentially curative, like gene therapy studies, that will impact children across the country and even across the world.

This clinical research facility makes Bristol a cutting-edge treatment site for rare paediatric disease, which has meant either children having to travel, or often missing out on novel therapies for rare conditions.

Thanks to the charity and its supporters, this will no longer be the case and we are excited to welcome our first patients next week.”

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