On Friday, September 27, the Primary Care Trusts of Brighton and Mid Sussex will hold a special meeting in The Martletts Hall, Burgess Hill, to decide the site for the new breast care unit for the patients of Sussex, including Horsham,Wealden and East Grinstead

The original plan was to build a special unit at the Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath. The Nigel Porter Unit in Brighton does provide good care for those patients able to be treated there. The Argus (September 16) states only 300 patients from Mid Sussex are treated at the unit.

This is because the majority of patients from outside Brighton are dispersed to units in London, Worthing and Tunbridge Wells and not only Haywards Heath.

I know only too well the enormous strain this has put on patients and families.

The health needs of patients living in remote areas are ignored by the Brighton and Hove campaigners. They live in a bustling city with access to transport.

Not every resident outside Brighton and Hove has a car and in commuter areas many patients have no public transport either.

Reports in The Argus have said people will lose their lives if the Nigel Porter Unit is moved. People are already losing their lives.

This is why we desperately need a large specialist unit to meet the increasing growth of one of the biggest killers of patients in the UK.

While the patients who have recovered feel they owe their lives to the Nigel Porter Unit, we have to realise breast cancer survival rates in the UK are only 63 per cent compared to Spain at 64 per cent, Italy, France and Spain at 72 per cent, Switzerland at 76 per cent and the US at 82 per cent.

What is Brighton and Hove losing? The patients across the city will have improved access to services they desperately need. Breast cancer patients in Brighton and Hove will still receive radiotherapy and chemotherapy at the Royal Sussex County.

The needs of the large population across central Sussex who do not live in Brighton and Hove are being ignored.

A new unit in Mid Sussex would ensure early diagnosis and a specialist centre for operations where there is sufficient capacity. Operations will not have to be cancelled if a more urgent operation - as a result of trauma - occurs.

Some patients from Brighton and Hove are already receiving treatment in Haywards Heath, where they are treated more quickly.

With the increase in breast cancer, it is vital the site is large enough to cope in the future. The Princess Royal site is large enough to meet this demand.

Access is easier for people across the whole of central Sussex by the main London to Brighton rail line and the A272 for east to west access.

Parking is definitely easier than in Brighton and Hove. For those who need it, there is the hospital car service already provided.

We all live with the problems today of the wrong decisions taken by boards in the past. Today, patients are blamed for occupying hospital beds because we lack the provision of care we once wisely provided.

Trust boards do not always make the right decisions and the long-term results can cost us more than money.

-Coun Anne Jones, Potters Lane, Burgess Hill