Southend's deputy mayor today lost his daughter to cancer - and launched a campaign to save the town's cancer centre.

A Government think-tank has drawn up new proposals to move cancer units to areas with a population of more than 1m people.

In a report leaked to the Echo, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) suggests general teams tackling all types of cancer would remain at local hospitals.

South Essex - with a population of just 750,000 - could have some of its specialist facilities and consultants shifted to larger population areas, according to deputy mayor Dr Alan Crystall. His own daughter, who had been gravely ill for some time, died this morning.

Some services could even move as far away as Ipswich, according to Dr Crystall.

Dr Crystall, a Lib Dem councillor for Leigh, today called for urgent action to prevent the worst case scenario. He said: "Cancer care in Southend is excellent - but a considerable part of our local treatment, and the consultants who provide it, could be moved elsewhere.

"Urgent action is needed by Southend to co-operate with other cancer units. We need to find partners outside our present south Essex boundaries to prevent facilities from moving."

Graham Butland, chief executive of South Essex Health Authority, stressed that the boundaries had yet to be drawn up, and that Southend could equally well become the centre as another hospital.

He added that only treatment for certain types of cancer would be affected- where the throughput of patients is very low.

A spokesman for Nice said: "This is only a draft document and nothing will be finalised until at least spring next year.

Published Tuesday December 18, 2001