The future of breast cancer care for women in Brighton and Hove will be decided later this month. Karen Hoy reports.

The choice is simple. The Nigel Porter Unit for Breast Care based at Brighton's Royal Sussex County Hospital will either remain in the city by moving into Rosaz House or be moved to a building built in the grounds of the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

Campaigners say women's lives could be at risk if the breast cancer unit moves out of Brighton and Hove, 17 miles away to Haywards Heath.

The vast majority of the patients who will use the service, 2,500 a year, are based on the coastal strip.

Only about 300 patients a year travel from Mid Sussex to Brighton for treatment for cancer support services such as radiotherapy.

However, they have their own unit in Haywards Heath and that will not close if Brighton is chosen as the ideal option.

The people in the Brighton and Hove area are more likely to be affected by transport problems.

Only 41 per cent of people living in Brighton and Hove own a car, compared to 79 per cent in Mid Sussex, who own one or more cars.

An investigation by The Argus into public transport links between Brighton and Hove and Haywards Heath showed the journey would take four buses and one taxi and cost £8.80 for a return trip.

The return journey would take from between 2hr 5min to 4hr 27min depending on times the journey was taken.

The population of Brighton and Hove is more than 250,000 but no part of Mid Sussex has anything like that number of people.

The Nigel Porter Unit is too small to cater for increasing demand on its services but a proposal by health chiefs last October to move the unit to Haywards Heath sparked outrage.

The Argus launched a petition to keep the service in Brighton and Hove and within 11 days, more than 30,000 people had signed it.

The decision, which will be made on September 27, will affect thousands of lives, not just those suffering from breast cancer, but their families, friends and work colleagues.

Breast cancer survivor Sylvia Cohen-Price, 57, warned some women would not be able to reach a unit in Haywards Heath and others would be put off attending appointments by the sheer distance.

She has fought a two-year battle with the disease and knows the emotional and physical strength needed to undergo such intensive treatment to cure her of the disease.

She was treated at the Nigel Porter Unit and had to take a bus to the unit from her home in Hove every day for six weeks at the peak of her treatment.

That worked out to 60 return journeys, which she said were extremely difficult, despite the short distance involved.

Mrs Cohen-Price, of Princes Avenue, said: "I don't think I would have gone for treatment had the unit been in Haywards Heath. I think some women would just not bother.

"You think you will leave it and deal with it at a later date but it could be too late then.

"People will lose their lives if it is moved."

Mrs Cohen-Price wants the people making the decision to look at the facts as to why the unit should be in Brighton and not just vote for it to be in Haywards Heath because they want it near them.

Those responsible for making this decision, which could affect every one of us, should consider the fact that Brighton is the only place for a unit.

All the medical experts agree the best way to tackle breast cancer is to have all the breast cancer services on one site.

Retired consultant Nigel Porter, after whom the Brighton unit was named because of his pioneering work in breast cancer, told us moving the unit to Haywards Heath, away from radiotherapy services in Brighton, was a retrograde step in treatment.

He said: "It is fragmenting the service."

Dr Richard Sullivan, head of clinical programmes at Cancer Research UK, agreed with Mr Porter and said the unit should remain adjacent to the other cancer treatments at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

Now there is the financial evidence, showing no difference between building a unit in Brighton or Haywards Heath.

Initial estimates said it would cost £13 million to house a new unit at Rosaz House.

A new unit at Haywards Heath would cost £11.5 million, making that the cheaper option.

However, it has since been found that with equipment and other associated expenditure, the cost for each site would be almost the same, about £13 million.

Campaigner Jayne Bennett said: "There is no reason at all now to consider moving it to Haywards Heath.

"If they do go ahead with the move it will be at the cost of women's lives."

The right decision is vital.