A CHARITY worker who lost her daughter to leukaemia has joined the fight to save the work of a pioneering medical centre that provides crucial cancer research.

Sue Sollis, of the Tracy Sollis Leukaemia Trust, has been to London for a meeting on the future of the Haematology Research Unit, near Tunbridge Wells, in Kent.

Mrs Sollis, from Evesham, has raised tens of thousands of pounds since her daughter, Tracy, died of leukaemia in 1995 at the age of 15.

The unit, which has led the way in developing a system to find the most effective treatment for cancer patients, is due to close at the end of the month because of funding problems.

The centre, which is based at Pembury Hospital, has to raise £150,000 a year to survive, and staff have to apply for grants and raise funds like a charity.

A debate in the House of Commons heard that, although the Government agreed the unit provided a vital service, it could not provide funding.

The research unit has been adopted as this year's charity by the trust.

Mrs Sollis met Dr Jean Sargent, from the laboratory, and Prof Vaskar Saha, of St Bartholomew's Hospital, to discuss the future for the unit.

Prof Saha is looking to save the work done by relocating it to his unit at St Bartholomew's.

Mrs Sollis said she was devastated that the situation had arisen, but she was determined it would not mark the end but the start of a new era.

"At last, the importance of this work is being recognised, and with help we will succeed in ensuring its future," she said. "We are looking at the costs of relocating."

The tireless fund-raiser said the procedure being pioneered by the unit would save the Government almost £1,500 per leukaemia patient per year.

"It seems crazy that a centre that does such important work should be disbanded and set up elsewhere," she said.