COLCHESTER’S new state-of-the-art cancer centre will welcome its first patients next month.

The Collingwood Centre based at Colchester Hospital is almost complete with just under three weeks to go before the contractors’ work is finished.

Work started on the new £3.25million centre at the beginning of the year after years of fundraising supported by the Gazette.

Nine months later and work on the ceiling tiles and lighting is coming to an end and the reception desks are all fitted.

Adding colour to the walls and fitting out the treatment rooms will start next week.

The service will move into the new unit over November 9 and 10 and the first patients will be treated there on November 11.

A spokesman for the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Colchester Hospital, said: “The unit will benefit from new and modern state-of-the-art furniture and equipment, which will complement the overall setting of the centre which will bring chemotherapy, radiotherapy and haematology under one roof for the first time.

“This has all been funded and made possible by generous donations to the Cancer Centre Campaign, run by the Colchester and Ipswich Hospitals Charity.

“We are still receiving donations and they’re being put towards the finishing touches, including a generous £34, 250 donation towards new furniture from community group King Cole’s Kittens.”

The works also include a wellness centre and building work for this started in August.

The latest enhancement to plans is the creation of a garden room, with large sliding glass doors opening up on to a patio area.

The wellbeing centre will offer counselling and support services for patients and their families and will offer complementary treatments to patients alongside their medical treatments.

For more, visit www.colchesteripswichcharity.org.uk/cancercentrecampaign.