A SPECIALIST cancer unit that will transform treatment for thousands of teenagers fighting cancer has taken a giant step closer to becoming reality.

Work has now begun to build the state-of-the-art unit after bosses at Southampton General Hospital gave their final approval for the multi-million pound project.

The milestone will be announced today but before the dream can be fully realised £700,000 needs to be raised to fund the operation of the unit once it has been built.

The Teenage Cancer Trust is now asking Daily Echo readers to get behind their campaign and help young patients get treated on a ward with others their age instead of babies and pensioners.

Simon Davies, chief executive of Teenage Cancer Trust, said: “Today is a real milestone for Teenage Cancer Trust. The development of this unit has been a long time coming and local communities and businesses have worked tirelessly to help us get to this stage. We are incredibly grateful for their support and we are now asking local people to help us in our final fundraising push so that next year we can officially open our new unit.”

Final plans have now been approved which will see a larger, £2.4m ten-bed unit built for young cancer patients aged 16 to 24 across the south.

It will feature six en-suite inpatient bedrooms, which will now be almost double their original size to enable family or friends to stay over.

There will also be four day care spaces, social and recreation areas with a kitchen and dining area, plus a parent/family sitting room.

Charlotte Adams, 20, pictured, from Bordon, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia when she was 13 and was treated on a children’s ward.

She said: “Being a teenager going through cancer is very hard to understand.

“When I was going through my treatment I didn’t have any teenage facilities, I was put on a children’s ward which was full of babies and young children. The alternative was a ward full of adults.

“Not having a Teenage Cancer Trust unit meant I never got the chance to speak to anyone my age who was going through the same things as me and so I always felt I was the only one and I was on my own.”

Throughout the construction patients will have the chance to work with the hospital architect to advise on the design and colour themes and what furniture and entertainment equipment should be included.

So far Teenage Cancer Trust’s Southampton Appeal has raised £1.7m and construction work will start in October, with the unit expected to be finished by summer next year, but a further £700,000 is urgently needed before the unit becomes operational.