Nuneaton and Bedworth's Mayor, Councillor Bill Hancox, has revealed his civic charity for 2024/25.
At a launch held at Nuneaton Town Hall on Friday, 12 July, the Mayor and Mayoress, Alderwoman Sheila Hancox, announced the charity to be the Breast Care Unit at the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton.
This service is vital to women at every stage of their journey, providing essential expert clinical and emotional support to patients.
This year is also significant for the hospital as it celebrates its 75th anniversary.
Over the coming months, the Mayor and Mayoress want to raise awareness of all the terrific work carried out by the staff, as well as raise funds for new equipment at the facility.
A Just Giving page has also been set up to make it easier for people to donate.
Cllr Hancox said:
“My wife's family has a history of breast cancer and has received tremendous support from this unit.
“We really want this appeal to raise awareness of all of the valuable work done by the Breast Care Unit and its highly committed staff.’’
In recent years, the service has developed, and now has a radiologist to improve patient pathways, which has seen the capacity double.
The hospital is now looking at what steps are needed to continue the growth of the service to meet the needs of patients.
Claire Nutting, Senior Breast Care Nurse at the unit, said why the appeal is so important:
“We care for our patients at such an important part of their lives and this appeal will enable us to do so much more to ensure that they get the best care we can possibly give them.
“It will enable us to develop our service and ensure we are able to provide a better environment at every stage of patient care, including developing a comfortable counselling area, which we sadly can’t provide currently.”
The Mayor and Mayoress will be contacting businesses, schools, colleges, and voluntary groups across the borough to see if they can help support the appeal.