BASILDON Hospital is providing a new specialised chemotherapy service which will allow some patients to receive treatment closer to home.

The treatment, called intrathecal chemotherapy, involves injecting drugs into the spine and is used to treat people suffering from lymphoma or leukaemia.

Consultant hematologist Dr Jagadeesan Shankari said: “High-grade lymphomas are aggressive cancers.

“This is an important treatment that can stop the cancer spreading to the brain or the spine, and it is much better for unwell patients not to have to travel long distances to receive it.

“We can deliver this service efficiently thanks to great team work.”

Before Basildon Hospital was accredited to provide this service, patients had to travel further afield to hospitals in Essex and London.

Now six patients are having injections every three weeks, under the care of a trained and registered team of consultants, doctors, nurses and pharmacists.

Peter Perry, 59, from Basildon, was the first person to use the service after he was diagnosed with lymphoma last September.

He said: “The worst thing is hearing you have cancer; you think you are going to die.

“But you have to try and stay positive. The staff at Basildon Hospital are all fantastic, and my specialist nurse Liz Bradley is always there to help and explain things to me if I don’t understand.”