The Argus today launches a campaign to prevent breast cancer services being moved out of Brighton and Hove.

We are asking readers to support our Keep Breast Care in Brighton campaign, write to health chiefs and sign our petition to demand the proposal be thrown out.

There are just 11 days left for you to demand the service stays in the city.

If a proposal to move the service to the Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath, gets the go-ahead more than 2,500 women each year would have to make the 17-mile journey.

Yet patients needing chemotherapy or radiotherapy would still have to travel back to Brighton for treatment.

Des Turner, MP for Brighton Kemp Town, is vehemently opposed to the proposal together with his wife Lynn, who battled the disease with the help of the Nigel Porter Unit eight years ago.

Mr Turner said breast cancer was best treated with all medical support on one site.

He said the move would lead to a downgrading of the service.

Only last week Brighton Health Care NHS Trust was labelled with no-star status by the Government.

Mr Turner said: "Given the current no star status, it is terribly, terribly sad to take away from the site, a shining beacon of excellence which is the Nigel Porter unit.

"I'm convinced that the hospital management have failed in their long-term planning to take into account the Nigel Porter centre and now they realise it's a major service and they haven't planned it properly."

Last year 883 women put their lives in jeopardy by failing to keep their appointments at the Nigel Porter Unit in Brighton. Campaigners fear that figure could rise as women use the increased distance as an excuse not to keep their appointments.

The Nigel Porter Unit for Breast Care was opened in 1993 with money raised through public subscription. It has its own band of dedicated fund-raisers who, during the last two years, raised £45,000 towards the purchase of a new breast screening van.

Jean Nehls, co-chairman of the Friends of Nigel Porter Unit for Breast Care, said: "It seems as if this is a political move rather than a practical one. We were not formally approached about the proposals. For a woman needing breast care it's rather a traumatic experience. I'm very anti the move."

The group has also launched a petition to collect names of people who want the centre to stay in the city. Members will be collecting signatures up until the closing date for comments on October 19.

Brighton and Hove City councillor Jayne Bennett is also opposed to the move and plans to man a stall collecting signatures in Churchill Square. She has already handed out leaflets telling people about the proposal. She said: "I think it's dreadful."

Leonie Petrarca, of Hove, said: "Surely it's best to keep the unit in the city where the other services are. It would be better for them to be near the oncology services and where they have radiotherapy and chemotherapy."

Mike Collinson, chief officer of the Brighton, Hove and Lewes Community Health Council, said: "We would question whether Haywards Heath was the most appropriate place for a specialist unit for the majority of our residents."

The next public meeting being held by health chiefs is at Meeching Hall, Newhaven, on Thursday. The final meeting will be at Franklands Village Hall, Haywards Heath, on October 16. Both start at 7.30pm.