Grandmother Pam Clark says she owes her life to having breast cancer services in Brighton and Hove.

Now she has joined The Argus in its campaign to fight the plan to transfer the service out of the city to Haywards Heath.

The Argus launched its Keep breast care in Brighton campaign on Monday after Brighton Health Care NHS Trust announced a plan to move the service to the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

There are just nine days remaining for the public to voice opposition to the proposal.

Mrs Clark, 73, of Portslade, has been asking people to sign our petition to get health chiefs to keep the service in the city.

She said: "It must stay. Only the other day, a young woman came up to me.

"She has been ill and if she had to go to Haywards Heath she wouldn't be able to get there because she has children."

Mrs Clark knows the importance of the Nigel Porter Unit at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, which provides breast care.

She was diagnosed with cancer in 1990 after feeling pain in her breast and tightness in her chest.

She then discovered a lump in one of her breasts and went immediately to her doctor at the Portslade Health Centre. He referred her to the Royal Sussex.

She said: "Looking back, I did have some funny feelings but I dismissed them at the time."

The lump was diagnosed as malignant and Mrs Clark opted to have a mastectomy rather than have the lump removed to be sure the disease was stopped in its tracks.

She then underwent radiotherapy and was prescribed Tamoxifen, the breast-cancer beating drug which controls hormone levels that are considered to affect breast cancer.

Although the unit was not opened at the Royal Sussex until 1993, she believes having all the services on one site helped save her life.

She does not drive and said it would have meant her husband taking her to Haywards Heath had the unit been based there when she was diagnosed.

She said: "He would have had to have driven me even for the check-up appointments."

Mrs Clark raises money for the unit with an annual sponsored walk and is now collecting signatures on the petition.

She said: "I feel good that I can give something back. But now we have to fight to keep it in the city."

l Readers who want to ask questions about the proposed transfer of breast care services can meet health bosses tomorrow.

A public meeting is being held to discuss all the proposals being made to a variety of health services in Brighton and Hove and Mid Sussex, including the breast cancer unit.

There are only two such meetings remaining before October 19, when all comments must have been sent to the consultation leaders.

Tomorrow's meeting is at Meeching Hall, Newhaven, and starts at 7.30pm.

There is another at Franklands Village Hall, Haywards Heath, on Tuesday at the same time.

Sign the petition in our Local Issues section.