OUR campaign for radiotherapy services to be provided at Lister Hospital in Stevenage is being backed by a council leader.

Sharon Taylor, leader of Stevenage Borough Council (SBC), is supporting the call for a satellite radiotherapy unit to be provided on the Lister site.

Currently patients must travel to Mount Vernon Hospital in Middlesex for treatment.

More than 450 people have already signed up to the campaign, which was launched earlier this month by The Comet and by MP for Stevenage, Stephen McPartland.

More than 980 people have also joined an independent Facebook page supporting the drive.

Now Cllr Taylor has pledged on behalf of SBC to back the initiative and “actively campaign” for the new unit.

“I feel very strongly about it,” she said, explaining that she has had personal experience of driving a loved one to Mount Vernon for weeks of daily radiotherapy treatment for breast cancer.

“For patients to have to travel to Mount Vernon, on some of the busiest roads in the country, when you’re not feeling well is very tiring,” she said, adding that “often people can’t drive so they have to be reliant on others.

“It adds a considerable burden to their illness, so the sooner we can get a unit at Stevenage the better.

“It’s absolutely essential in my view, and we will be actively campaigning for it.”

She said the council hopes to have a stall in the town centre one day next week, collecting signatures in support of our campaign.

To sign up to the campaign, click on the Cancer Treatment Centre Campaign Petition story on the home page at www.thecomet24.co.uk or complete the printed form and return it to The Comet newsdesk, Bank House, Primett Road, Stevenage, SG1 3EE.