TIME is running out to get a decision on bringing radiotherapy services to Kendal if a half million pound donation towards its costs is not to be lost.

The ticking clock on funding from the wealthy benefactor was highlighted Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron, who is urging the NHS to make a decision without delay.

He said the legacy offer was contingent on a radiotherapy decision being made by June this year.

Mr Farron has campaigned alongside The Westmorland Gazette for a satellite unit of the Rosemere Centre in Preston to be set up at Westmorland General Hospital. However, a decision about these services is currently being held up due to a review of radiotherapy services which has taken place by specialist commissioners at regional level.

Mr Farron said the outcome of the review was now with Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), even though radiotherapy services are not, in fact, commissioned by CCGs.

Mr Farron has now written to NHS England North Specialised Commissioning Team, to ask what the status of the review is, and when it will be published. He has also asked for clarification about the impact of this review on the recent and ongoing bid for a satellite radiotherapy unit in Kendal.

The MP said: “The fact that an individual generously left half a million pounds for the establishment of a radiotherapy unit in Kendal, which will be lost if the unit is not given the go-ahead by June, adds extra urgency to the situation. A decision must be made without delay.

“This review is dragging on. Local people, and in particular those who currently have to travel regularly to Preston for treatment, want to see a decision made about radiotherapy services in Kendal.

“The Government recommends that patients should not have to travel for more than 45 minutes to access radiotherapy services, yet we all know that the vast majority of South Lakeland residents live further than this from Preston. It is unacceptable that local people have to travel so far to access such essential services.

The Westmorland Gazette's Shorter Journeys Longer Lives campaign was launched in 2012 to press for a radiotherapy unit at the Kendal hospital and hundreds of people took to the streets to support the call.