A CAMPAIGNING councillor has added his support to the Gazette’s campaign to keep urology cancer surgery in Colchester because “the team saved my life”.

Essex county and Tendring district councillor Carlo Guglielmi underwent surgery at Colchester General Hospital after being diagnosed with bladder cancer.

He said: “The team was absolutely marvellous, they saved my life.”

Mr Guglielmi, who lives at and runs the Lawford post office, was first diagnosed in 2012.

He said: “They tried to remove my bladder, but unfortunately there were complications.

“I suffered a huge amount of bleeding and that is when you need specialist people.

“If I had had to be transported to another centre by helicopter or ambulance, it could have been the difference between life and death.”

Mr Guglielmi underwent further surgery and, at one point, was in hospital for three weeks.

When he was recovering, he decided to donate six weeks of his allowance as a Tendring councillor to the cancer urology surgical team.

He said: “I thought it would be almost immoral of me to have kept the allowance when I was recovering for six weeks.

“I decided, because of the fantastic work they did, to give it to the hospital.

“They spent it on equipment, which meant they could do more operations.

“The treatment I had there was absolutely faultless, you could not get better anywhere.

I can’t thank them enough.”

Under Nice guidelines, NHS England is looking keep just one centre in Essex. The two contenders are expected to be Colchester and Southend.

Mr Guglielmi had ongoing treatment for nearly a year which could only be carried out at a specialist centre.

He still has to go to the hospital every three months to have stents in his kidneys changed.

He is backing the campaign to keep the specialist cancer urology surgery in Colchester.

He said: “I am relatively young at 58, but it would be arduous enough for me to have to go to Southend every two or three months.

“Many people needing urology surgery are aged over 55 and there are more elderly people in this district than anywhere else.

“I fully understand the Government’s asking for a specialist centre where there is a population of more than one million.

“However, it is difficult for people living in north Essex, much of which is rural, to get to Southend.

“It is easier for people in Southend to access services in London if they can’t get to Colchester.”