The cancer rooms allow children who are seriously ill to be treated by specialist nurses in one area
Children living with cancer in Northern Ireland will be able to access two new state-of-the-art isolation rooms at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.
The new rooms, which will increase the number of beds at the unit from eight to 10 and they are also specialist isolation rooms which create infection free zones suitable for the cancer treatment and care of the most vulnerable patients.
It followed a fundraising drive from the Children’s Cancer Unit Charity.
Boxer Carl Frampton cut the ribbon alongside a number of patients. He told the BBC: “Coming up here puts things in perspective.
“You see these kids and what they are going through and their families – so what happened to me is irrelevant really.”
The additional rooms will also allow more children to recover closer to home if they receive treatment further afield, such as in England.
Each year in Northern Ireland, there are between 50 to 60 new cases of children being diagnosed with cancer.
Overall, 200 local children use the facilities provided by the Children’s Cancer Unit.