A MILESTONE has been reached in the project to bring a cancer care centre to Worcestershire.

The first bricks have officially been put in place on the county's state-of-the-art radiotherapy centre, based at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Worcester, by Harry Turner, chairman of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

The building will eventually be made up of more than 100,000 bricks, taking 13 weeks to assemble.
The construction of the steel structure and concrete bunkers, housing three linac treatment machines and an x-ray machine, is now complete.

Lend Lease construction staff will now be working hard to complete the brickwork, as well as the roof works, to ensure the building is watertight in early 2014.

The new centre will provide radiotherapy treatment for the county's cancer patients and means they will no longer face long journeys our of the county for their care. It is estimated it will save patients about 1 million miles of travel every year.

Mr Turner said: "It's great to see how fast the building is taking shape. It's really encouraging to think our vision to improve cancer services for patients will soon be a reality. This new radiotherapy facility will make such a huge difference to cancer patients across the county and surrounding areas."