A CANCER patient from Dovercourt has called for a specialist cancer surgery centre at Colchester General Hospital to be kept.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence says cancer surgery centres should serve a population of at least one million people – and that means there should only be one urology unit in Essex.

Bids for the service are due to be made next month and consultant urologist at Colchester General Hospital, John Corr, said he believed both Colchester and Southend would bid for it.

Cancer sufferers said it was unreasonable to expect patients and their families to go on a 120-mile round trip for surgery in Southend.

John Mann, of Fronks Road, Dovercourt, was diagnosed with bladder cancer and cancer of the ureter tube last year.

The 69-year-old has called for the service to remain in Colchester.

“The wonderful treatment that I received during the various scans and tests, the two operations, one of which was nearly six hours long, followed by chemotherapy, was firstclass,” he said.

Support from MP

MP for Harwich and North Essex, Bernard Jenkin, has lent his support to the campaign.

He said: “The NHS should not expect urology patients in Colchester, or Harwich or Braintree, to have to travel to Southend for cancer surgery.

“To lose the capability to operate on urology patients would undermine Colchester as a cancer centre of excellence.

“Colchester serves as the centre for north Essex. Southend Hospital serves south Essex. The dual Essex centre makes sense for pragmatic and geographic reasons. Nobody in Essex is pressing for this to change.”