BUCKS Free Press readers have won a campaign to keep breast cancer screening services at Wycombe Hospital.

Buckinghamshire Health Authority has abandoned its plan to close either Wycombe or Stoke Mandeville hospitals' screening units and create one centre for women in south and mid Bucks.

Nearly 1,200 readers wrote to the Free Press after we launched a campaign against the plan. Former Wycombe District Council chairman Betty Barratt, who has had breast cancer, was among many supporters.

Mrs Barratt went with editor Steve Cohen and reporter Kelly Clayton to the authority's HQ in Aylesbury last July to present the petition .

She said: "I am absolutely delighted and I think the Free Press can be congratulated on a successful campaign. The response was massive."

She went from discovering a lump at a routine screening, to visiting the Wycombe Unit, having a biopsy, lumpectomy and finally a mastectomy. She visits Wycombe Hospital for checks.

She said women would be concerned about having to travel long distances while already worried about their health and also value the personal nature of a local centre where patients and staff know each other.

She said: "We had to try to keep the three centres, because Bucks is such a long county."

This week Bucks director of public health, Dr Robert Sherriff, said things would almost certainly remain as they are. The three centres will stay, but there will be joint management teams, one for Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville hospitals and one for Milton Keynes and Northampton. The recommendation that the three centres should stay come from a special group set up by the health authority with members from the community health councils and user groups.

He said: "They recommended the same set up as before, but with a joint management structure. Everything will be the same. It won't affect the patients, it will affect the staff. What will happen is that when Stoke and Wycombe hospitals' screening results are measured in terms of quality, they will be measured as a single team."

He added: "The women certainly didn't want it to change. I am very aware of the strong feelings of the public and Bucks Health Authority never wants to change anything that would be detrimental to patients. This was a quality control issue."

The report goes to the health authority's meeting this month where it is expected to be approved. Dr Sherriff said it was good news but would cost more and he hoped the government will pay.

Campaign facts

Nearly 1,200 people wrote in after we launched our Save Our Screening campaign last year. Many wrote in with their own personal stories of how the screening service at High Wycombe had helped them

Closing the High Wycombe unit would have meant women travelling to Aylesbury or Milton Keynes for further screening, only to be referred back to Wycombe for treatment if the disease was confirmed.

Health officials said the current units were too small and concentrating resources would provide a better service. It is thought the authority would make annual savings of £23,000 if only one site was used and £31,000 to £53,000 if two were kept.

More than 35,000 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in the UK last year. One in five women will fight the disease in their lifetime.