Presenter Clare Balding opens £6.5m radiotherapy unit

Presenter Clare Balding opened the new £6.5m radiotherapy unit

Presenter Clare Balding has opened a new £6.5m radiotherapy unit at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital.

It means cancer patients in north Hampshire will no longer have to undergo 60 mile round trips to Southampton or Guildford for treatment.

It is the first phase of a scheme to provide all cancer treatment in a new facility.

An appeal raised £450,000 for the unit's CT Scanner.

Ms Balding, originally from Kingsclere, Hampshire, said: "It is a big radiotherapy unit, it can treat 30 or 40 patients a day.

"You want to be in a place that feels right, that has got light and air and space and is clean and modern and has all the latest facilities. This one also has specialist services for very rare cancers.

"It is a wonderful development."