BUILDERS are set to arrive in Chalfont St Peter in the next couple of weeks to begin work on a new £2.4 million assessment unit at the headquarters of the National Society for Epilepsy (NSE).

After eight years of planning, staff are itching to take delivery of the facilities needed to keep them at the cutting edge of treatment and research.

The NSE has raised an impressive £2 million in just two years and final preparations are now under way to finally get the new unit off the drawing board.

Most of the cash was granted by medical trusts and charitable bodies, including £500,000 from the National Lottery.

Professor John Duncan, of the NSE in Chalfont St Peter, is extremely excited about the arrival of the new assessment unit.

He said: "It will be a world-class facility and it is fair to say there will be nowhere else like it globally. This is going to be a real step forward."

The NSE in Chesham Lane houses more than 250 adult residents of all ages and abilities and spans over 75 acres.

Epilepsy affects around 300,000 people in Britain making it at least as common as asthma and diabetes.

But even now, epilepsy remains widely misunderstood and it is only through continual research and patient monitoring that understanding, awareness and alleviation of the condition can be advanced.

The condition is likened to an electrical storm in the brain. The brain has a complex structure of millions of nerve cells, called neurones, which are usually well organised and self-regulating. They are responsible for a wide range of functions including consciousness, awareness and movement.

Epilepsy is when these connections in the brain misfire. Such malfunctions stop the brain from functioning properly and can cause a range of effects varying from a momentary absence to a full-blown convulsive seizure.

With the arrival of the new assessment unit, the NSE hopes it can find more ways of managing epilepsy and move further towards the goal of finding a possible cure.

The centre's current assessment unit takes in around 300 patients every year. But in between brain scans, psychology sessions and consultations, patients are left with little space and private amenities.

The new unit will offer patients single rooms with en-suite facilities, a special heating system to minimise possible injury, consultation rooms, improved recreational space and medical and monitoring facilities. Family members will also be able to stay with relatives facing a lengthy series of tests.

The NSE in Chalfont St Peter already houses state of the art medical equipment such as its £1 million magnetic resonance imaging unit (MRI).

Using the scanner provides the most effective way of identifying the cause of an individual's epilepsy and allows staff to get a detailed picture of what is happening in a sufferer's brain.

Prof Duncan hopes most of the building work will be completed by October by which time the society wants to have raised another £300,000 to properly furnish the unit.