ALMOST 500 people in Worcestershire are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. The care sufferers receive at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital is absolutely first class. The environment in which they receive that care is not.

Anyone with suspected breast cancer faces unwanted additional stress during their visits to the Worcester hospital because of its size and layout.

They struggle to find a parking space. They sit (if they are lucky) in a hot and overcrowded waiting room. The examinations and procedures they undergo take place in different departments and on different floors, meaning they have to dress and undress repeatedly. Those who need prosthetics have them fitted behind a curtain in a busy office.

An average first consultation visit to the WRH can take four hours.

Today the Worcester News adopts a £2.5m fund-raising appeal to create and equip a purpose-built breast unit in the city. It will be a flagship facility, reducing the average time of that first visit to 90 minutes and providing fantastic care in an attractive, welcoming and relaxing environment.

The building for the new unit is already available near the hospital site. The NHS will meet the future running costs of the unit.

The public appeal launched today is to raise the funds needed to refurbish the building and equip it.

Once in operation, it will transform the way in which hundreds of local people are treated every year.

But don’t take our word for it. Patients like Susie Coleman and specialists like Steven Thrush talk to us today about just how important this appeal is.

We know our readers will do all they can to get this vital unit open.

• Click the picture below to download our donation form.

Worcester News: Breast Unit Appeal