LAST week the Daily Echo and Wessex Cancer Trust launched The C Change Appeal, a new campaign to provide a pioneering cancer care centre in Bournemouth.

Here breast cancer survivor, Sara Hawkins, tells Nicky Findley how the support she received from her local cancer care centre in Hampshire helped to get her life back on track.

WHEN Sara Hawkins found a lump in her breast at the age of 39, she ignored it at first because she felt she was far too young to have cancer.

After several months she finally heeded a friend’s advice to have it checked out, more for peace of mind, she says, than anything else.

Although the results of a mammogram gave her the all clear, a biopsy of the lump revealed that cancerous cells were present eventually leading to a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Sara told the Echo: “I remember I’d just spent £70 getting my highlights done, I hate being sick, I was never ill and I’d never broken a bone in my body! My husband Derek was incredibly supportive, but I grieved over the loss of such a feminine body part and felt so different. "

During Sara's treatment, her local Wessex Cancer Trust centre in Romsey, became a major part of her life.

Sara was so impressed with the care she received that she started working as a volunteer with the charity and is now Head of Client Services. Her husband is also an active volunteer.

Sara added: “Whilst the NHS saved my life, WCT saved my soul. There is always the possibility it may recur in later life. It’s so frustrating but the real fear is ‘where has it gone?’. I think about it all the time, or more accurately when a major news story focuses on cancer.

“It saved my emotional life when I had become seriously depressed mentally. WCT not only looks after the person living with cancer, but also all who care for them on the periphery.”

Now the Daily Echo is supporting WCT's appeal to provide a new cancer care centre at Fairview House in Hinton Road - the first of three new centres with child focused services.

According to the charity, around £10,000 is needed to equip the centre and a further £60,000 to help cover the annual running costs.

Volunteers are also needed to work in the centre and to help raise money and the charity is also appealing for new furniture such as sofas, easy chairs, coffee tables, laptops and tablets and towels and pictures.

For more information or details on how you can support the project, please email clare.lay@wessexcancer.org.uk or call 023 8067 2200.