What your money has already bought.

Keyhole, or minimal access, surgery means smaller wounds, less pain, less blood loss and a faster recovery. More than 600 children a year at Leeds need this kind of operation, and the skills it demands take hundreds of hours to perfect.

The Laparo Apex combines physical training modules with full procedural simulation in virtual reality, so trainee surgeons can rehearse real operations in a safe environment, again and again, with objective feedback on every movement.

Funded by our inaugural Clay Day together with grants from the Yorkshire Property Charitable Trust and the Kusuma Trust, it was installed at Leeds Children's Hospital in July 2024. Leeds is the UK's only functioning and training paediatric robotic surgery centre, and the Apex helps keep it at the forefront.

Brain tumours are the second most common cancer in children, with around 420 children diagnosed in the UK every year. Diagnosis needs complex genetic testing, and at present samples are sent to laboratories elsewhere in the country. Families can wait six to eight weeks for a definitive result, and treatment cannot begin until it arrives.

Nanopore sequencing lets the team at Sheffield analyse a tumour sample on site. A provisional result is available within a couple of hours, while the child is still in theatre if needed, and a full report within 24 hours. Surgeons can adapt their approach during the operation and oncologists can start chemotherapy or radiotherapy weeks earlier.

Led by Consultant Neurosurgeon Mr Daniel Gatt, the project is being embedded into a new clinical pathway at Sheffield Children's, one of only three standalone children's hospitals in the UK. Our appeal set out to raise £100,000 and passed £120,000 in June 2026, covering the equipment, three years of support and a project manager to bring it into use quickly.