I am A 65-year-old resident of the new city and have breast cancer . What a terrible way it would be to celebrate city status if we took the Nigel Porter Unit to Haywards Heath.

Being told you have breast cancer tears your whole world apart.

We all kid each other we are being positive but at the back of all our minds are too many fears, unspoken to each other but which we can all talk about at the unit.

I was diagnosed in May, had a double mastectomy in June and am waiting to start radiotherapy in the oncology department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital. The care package needs to stay together in the one place.

The care and kindness we as a family receive at the unit cannot be bettered. The receptionists always greet us with a cheery smile and always have time to exchange a friendly word.

It's like our own friendly little social club of cancer patients - our world, where we can drop the public face of being brave. We can be the frightened people we are, with staff who care for us as people and not numbers to be shuffled around to suit the powers-that-be.

We don't want a centre of excellence for breast cancer treatment in Haywards Heath. We have one in Brighton. It's called the Nigel Porter Unit.

Leave it where it is, Mr Welling, and develop it where it is.

I realise, with no points from the Government, Mr Welling is anxious to keep his job but not at our expense, please.

The most important people in the equation are the cancer patients and their families. Think again, Mr Welling.

Well done, The Argus, for helping us. Keep up the pressure to keep the whole cancer unit in one place: Brighton.

-Mrs Pat Stainer, Foredown Road, Portslade