BRITAIN’S ‘cancer tsar’ Professor Mike Richards could prove an influential voice in the campaign to bring a radiotherapy unit to Westmorland General Hospital (WGH).

The national clinical dir-ector for cancer and end of life care met Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron yesterday (Wednes-day) to hear of the massive upswell of public support for a cancer unit in Kendal.

So far, more than 1,900 people have responded to The Westmorland Gazette Shorter Journeys Longer Lives campaign, which is running alongside Mr Farron’s own efforts to get a radiotherapy unit in Kendal.

The MP said he was delighted with the outcome of the meeting which he described as an ‘important step’ towards winning our campaign.

Mr Farron presented the business plan put together by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust and the Preston-based Lancashire Teaching Hosp-itals Trust, which proposes to make WGH a satellite of the Rosemere unit at the Royal Preston Hospital.

The long-term campaign to bring full cancer services saw success earlier in the year with the opening of a new chemo-therapy unit at WGH.

The campaign to add radiotherapy to the new cancer unit is now winning support from local residents, with more than 3,000 local people signing Mr Farron’s petition to back the bid.

Mr Farron said: “My meeting with Professor Richards was an important step towards winning our campaign for radiotherapy at Kendal. He was clear that patients should not have to travel more than 45 minutes for radiotherapy; and, of course, everybody in the South Lakes lives more than 45 minutes away from our current nearest centre.

“He was also very supportive of our proposed model for radiotherapy at Kendal. He believes plans to extend the Rosemere unit at Preston to Kendal is the right model to choose.

“Following our convers-ation, he will be taking a personal interest in our bid and will be in talking to the hospitals trust and the commissioners.

“I’m delighted with the outcome of our meeting, so we must now keep up the pressure to make sure that we win our campaign.”

The final decision on a radiotherapy unit will be made by the Cumbria and Lancashire Collaborative Commisioning Group but Mr Farron believes Professor Richards’s view could be ‘very influential’ on the outcome.