We’re your local breast care charity, based at the Primrose Breast Care Centre, Level 7, University Hospitals Plymouth.

Originally set up in 1995, via an appeal to help fund and develop a ‘One Stop Clinic’ in Plymouth, where a one-day assessment is carried out by a variety of different breast care services to find out whether or not further investigations are needed. 

The original appeal raised an amazing £500,000 which was match funded by the NHS to create The Primrose Breast Care Centre we know today - A state-of-the art clinic where highly skilled Breast Surgeons, Breast Radiologists, Breast Care Nurses, Radiographers & screening support workers all work together with an incredible administration team to provide a high-quality and efficient service that puts the patients at the heart of everything they do. Our catchment areas are much of West and South Devon & South East Cornwall, which includes Plymouth, Saltash, Looe, Torpoint, Callington, Bude, Launceston, Tavistock, Kingsbridge, Salcombe & Ivybridge (depending on your GP’s referral areas).

So far, The Primrose Foundation has raised over £1.7 million to enhance the facilities and services provided by both The Primrose Breast Care Centre & other essential services a patient may need whilst on the breast pathway including;

We’re always happy to hear from patients that the Primrose Breast Care Centre feels homely, safe, bright and secure and we intend to keep it that way! With that in mind, we will continue to build on our achievements and remain at the forefront of treatment, care and support. Working in partnership with NHS staff, we are determined to make a significant difference to the future of breast care.

 

A Brief History of The Primrose Foundation

1995

The Primrose Foundation was launched in 1995 by two surgeons and a radiologist who worked at (the then named) Derriford Hospital - Colin Teasdale, Roger Watkins and Pam Jones. 

At the time, breast clinics were held in the hospital’s general outpatients on the ground floor. So when women visited with a breast symptom, they would have to get dressed and undressed on multiple occasions to travel around to different areas of the hospital for their examinations, x-raysand biopsies. During such an emotional time in a person’s life, it didn’t feel right that they had to go through added stress, which often resulted in some patients feeling anxious and vulnerable.

The trio wanted to open a specialist ‘one stop clinic’ at Derriford Hospital, which would provide all the facilities needed to offer effective breast screening, biopsy, counselling and nursing support under one roof, whilst ultimately bringing together the surgical, radiology and breast care nursing teams and thus, the idea for The Primrose Breast Care Centre was born.

1997

The huge sum of £500,000 needed to be raised to fund so in 1997, an appeal was launched by the charity’s first Chair of the Trustees, Dame Margaret Fry, to raise those funds. Through a dedicated fundraising committee, the target was achieved quickly, all thanks to the hard work and generosity shown by fundraisers across the South West.

 
 

2001

Incredibly, Plymouth Hospital Trust matched the money raised and the Primrose Breast Care Centre officially opened its doors for the first time on 19th April 2001 (Primrose Day).

To this day, our heartfelt thanks goes out to all those who were involved as the centre wouldn’t exist today without their dedication and many families across the South West would not have had access to the cutting edge treatment and care that Primrose Breast Care Centre now provides.

2020

We celebrated 25 years of supporting breast care services at University Hospitals Plymouth!