Campaigners fighting to keep a breast cancer unit in Brighton are set to meet Health Secretary Alan Milburn in the new year.

Members of the Campaign To Keep Breast Care In Brighton have been meeting Brighton and Hove MPs to discuss their next step in the battle to retain the Nigel Porter Unit for Breast Care in Brighton.

Health bosses at Brighton Health Care NHS Trust want to transfer the unit to the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

They say the current service needs to expand and there is nowhere suitable in the city to house a larger unit.

The Argus launched a petition to present to health bosses to raise awareness of the strength of public opposition to the proposal.

More than 30,000 people signed the petition in just ten days, which was handed to health bosses who are still considering the proposal to move the unit.

Campaigners have met Brighton and Hove Labour MPs Des Turner, Kemp Town; Ivor Caplin, Hove; and David Lepper, Brighton Pavilion, who are backing the campaign to keep the service in the city.

One of the campaigners, Brighton and Hove city councillor Jayne Bennett, said: "All three MPs have pledged their unanimous support and offered assistance to the group."

She said the MPs had arranged a meeting with Mr Milburn in London in the new year to stress the importance of retaining breast care services at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

She said: "We still need to continue campaigning to ensure the unit remains here."

The meeting with Mr Milburn will be held on January 22.

Dr Turner said: "The message is going to be that it's absolutely essential the centre should stay on the Royal Sussex site and there's no reason, in the long term, why it should not stay.

"If the management of the hospital need to be leaned on, then so be it.

"We will bring all the pressure we can from the top and bottom."

Mr Caplin said he was continuing his support for the campaign to keep the unit in the city.