A cancer unit has closed at the William Harvey Hospital leaving chemotherapy patients facing a gruelling journey to Canterbury for treatment.

A mobile chemotherapy unit will visit Ashford twice a week, allowing some patients to continue being treated in the town after the closure, which has been put down to staff shortages.

But those with complex needs, such as mum-of-two Maggie Lendrum, will have to make the 30-mile round trip to Canterbury, often while suffering the harrowing side effects of the treatment.

The 51-year-old, who has an aggressive form of breast cancer, had one chemotherapy session at her local hospital before receiving a letter to say her sessions would continue at the K&C.

"A lot of the other patients looked elderly and frail and now some of them will have to travel all that way" - Mrs Lendrum

She has been told her HER2 positive breast cancer means she has to be treated at a hospital with a full oncology unit, which Ashford no longer has.

Mrs Lendrum, who lives just minutes from the William Harvey in South Willesborough, said: “I’m not impressed. I couldn’t drive after chemo. I was projectile vomiting almost as soon as the drip came out.

“The only reason they let me go home was because I live five minutes away – they wouldn’t have let me go if I’d had a long journey.

“I’m cross the unit has closed. I didn’t ask to get cancer. I don’t smoke or drink and I keep fit – I just picked the black ball out of the bag.

“But it’s not just me. When I had my first session three weeks ago I was the youngest person there by quite a few years. A lot of the other patients looked elderly and frail and now some of them will have to travel all that way.

“The unit at the William Harvey was packed. Have they got enough room for all the extra people at Canterbury? It’s not just patients from the William Harvey who are being affected.”

At the same time as battling cancer, Mrs Lendrum is continuing to work as deputy supervisor at Kent Play Club’s after school club at East Stour Primary School, South Willesborough.

She is studying for a degree in childhood in the early years with the Open University and has ambitions to train as a teacher.

“My friend kindly offered to take me to my appointment at the William Harvey, but I’m certainly not going to ask her drive all the way from Ashford to Canterbury, potentially with me throwing up on the way home" - Mrs Lendrum

The devoted mum hopes the treatment will give her precious time to watch her children Abi, 16, and Adam, 12, grow up.

She continued: “I’d like to see my daughter get married one day. That’s probably not going to happen, but I would like to see them grow up at least.

“I had my biopsy on my daughter’s 16th birthday and she’s been sitting her GCSEs while all this is going on. Her school, Highworth Grammar, and my son’s school, Norton Knatchbull, have been very supportive. Both children were offered counselling, although they haven’t needed any.

"In fact the NHS staff have been wonderful too, they clearly just need more of them to keep the unit open.”

After having a lump and lymph nodes removed, Mrs Lendrum is now having three lots of chemotherapy drugs and 1.5 hours of cold capping (a treatment that aims to prevent hair loss) per session, which takes a total of five hours.

From her fourth session she will also be given the drug Herceptin, which will reduce the chances of her cancer returning but can have an effect on the heart.

The K&C offers outpatient heart services but east Kent’s main cardiac centres are at the William Harvey and the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate.

Mrs Lendrum is also concerned the K&C doesn’t have an accident and emergency department in case anything goes wrong.

After some discussion, Mrs Lendrum has been told she will get hospital transport to her K&C appointments as her husband is currently unable to drive due to his epilepsy and she would not feel safe driving herself or comfortable using public transport straight after chemotherapy.

She added: “My friend kindly offered to take me to my appointment at the William Harvey, but I’m certainly not going to ask her drive all the way from Ashford to Canterbury, potentially with me throwing up on the way home.

“There’s only so much you can ask your friends to do.”

The closure of the chemotherapy unit comes almost two months after we revealed the A&E department at the William Harvey Hospital was under threat.

An East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust report proposed having just one emergency department in east Kent, and Canterbury was cited as the top choice due to its central location.

This means the A&E departments at the William Harvey and the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate are at risk of being closed.

A public consultation into the restructuring could start as early as September.

Jenny Blunt had chemotherapy at the William Harvey Hospital for breast cancer 15 years ago and said she wouldn’t have been able to have the lifesaving treatment if it had been at the Kent and Canterbury.

"I can’t see how they’re getting away with closing the unit – they’ve kept it so quiet. Even if it’s only closed for a year, a year’s a long time for cancer" - Jenny Blunt

The 64-year-old retired care assistant, who lives in Kennington, said: “I wouldn’t have been able to do it if I’d had to go to Canterbury. My husband was working, I couldn’t have driven myself after chemo and I didn’t qualify for patient transport.

“Cancer is a very emotional thing. You think you’re going to die, there’s no two ways about it, and chemo is hell. This is just going to be added stress and strain.”

A friend of Mrs Blunt’s has lung cancer and has just been told her chemotherapy sessions have been moved to Canterbury.

Mrs Blunt has offered to drive her pal to some of the nine-hour sessions, which start at 8am.

She continued: “I can’t see how they’re getting away with closing the unit – they’ve kept it so quiet.

“Even if it’s only closed for a year, a year’s a long time for cancer. You’re going to lose people because they’re not going to be able to sustain that journey. I just think it’s awful.”

Debbie Hughes is half-way through a course of chemotherapy for breast cancer and has not been told whether her next session will be held in Ashford or Canterbury.

"Chemotherapy isn’t a pleasant experience anyway, but you’re squashed in like sardines and you can only have one visitor. They’ve got to do something about it”

The mum-of-three is due to have more chemo on Friday, July 17, and has been told to phone the William Harvey Hospital closer to the appointment to ask whether she can be treated in the mobile unit or has to travel to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.

The 48-year-old, who lives in Park Farm, Ashford, said: “They advised me to ring up to find out nearer the time. It could be in the lorry at the William Harvey or in Canterbury. I just want to know. If it’s going to be in Canterbury I’ll have to organise transport.

“I’m not normally too ill on the day, that comes the day after or the day after that, but it totally wipes you out. You can’t concentrate and you certainly couldn’t drive, you’d be putting other people at risk as well as yourself.

“I understand they’re short staffed but it’s inconvenient. It’s always packed at the unit.

"Chemotherapy isn’t a pleasant experience anyway, but you’re squashed in like sardines and you can only have one visitor. They’ve got to do something about it.”

Mrs Hughes featured in last week’s Kentish Express after her children sold sweets they won at their school sports day to raise money for Breast Cancer Care.

Ashford MP Damian Green says he will fight to make sure the closure is not permanent.

He said: “I spoke to the hospital and what they want to do is open a bigger and better Celia Blakey Centre when they’ve trained up some more nurses, which will take about a year.

"If that is the case it’s clearly negative that people are going to have to rely on the mobile services for a year.

“I would be absolutely opposed to a permanent closure. We need to have a cancer unit in a big hospital like the William Harvey.

"Last time I went there it was crowded and the space it was in clearly wasn’t big enough. I hope they take this opportunity to move it somewhere else in the hospital where there is more room.”

Speaking about the fact the closure comes hot on the heels of the A&E being under threat, Mr Green added: “Ever since the hospital was put in special measures by the CQC (Care Quality Commission) it’s been a difficult road but we must ensure there’s no long-term intention to downgrade the hospital.

"It would clearly be inconceivable that a hospital in a town with a growing population should be downgraded. We need more and better facilities at the William Harvey, not fewer.”

The William Harvey Hospital and others in East Kent are due to be re-inspected by the Care Quality Commsssion next week.