BUILDING work has begun on a £650,000 Macmillan information and support centre at Southend Hospital.

The unit will be open in the new year and will provide cancer patients, family and carers with vital information and support.

Former patients Janet Wagstaff and Roger Bassett, of Southend, Castle Point and Rochford User Involvement Group, raised the need for an information area similar to that at Basildon Hospital.

Southend provides key cancer treatment for south Essex residents, yet has no formal facilities offering cancer information and support.

Mrs Wagstaff was diagnosed with bowel cancer 13 years ago and recognised the need for such a centre, as well as being approached by members of the Southend Bowel Cancer Support Group.

She said: “We’ve spent four years working on this and doing the research and getting around red tape.

“We felt there was nowhere for any cancer patient to go to get information.

“When you’ve been down that road, you know what the need is.”

Macmillan Cancer Support is bearing most of the cost at £519,573, and £130,000 will be met by Southend Hospital Charitable Foundation.

The centre will have a quiet room, leaflets on all types of cancer and benefits information, a Macmillan nurse on hand every day who will be the manager, a well being room for reflexology and other treatments and a meeting room for support groups.