Next Monday Proton Partners is set to start work on its £35m proton beam therapy centre at the Paddington Village development site in Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter.

Michael Moran founded his company in 2015 after discovering that his brother’s breast cancer could have been treated with fewer side effects using proton beam therapy. The treatment is a highly targeted form of radiotherapy using a high energy beam that targets cancer cells while minimising damage to nearby tissue.

The Liverpool Echo reports the complex will be called The Rutherford Cancer Centre North West and should start offering proton beam treatment next year. The centre will treat up to five hundred patients a year and proton beam therapy will be offered to private and NHS patients.

Michael Moran said last year “Our mission is to make the best cancer care accessible to patients across the country and being from Liverpool myself, I’m incredibly proud that my city is not only leading the way in advancing treatment provision, but it is also at the forefront of world-leading research projects.”

The Rutherford Centre is a relatively low rise building compared to some of the others planned for Paddington Village, but the building will be more complex than it first looks. Patients will only see a treatment room, where they lie on a bed. The cyclotron that creates the proton beams is enclosed within thick concrete walls.