Sir,

My name is Lyn Neville and I am the charity co-ordinator at Pembrokeshire Cancer Support.

I attended a meeting on Thursday, January 9, at the Bloomfield Centre in Narberth.

The meeting was between the Local Health Board (Hywel Dda) and the Community Health Council.

I took my place in the public area as I knew at some point the public are asked if they have any questions.

I was very pleased that one of the items on the agenda was about the Cancer Day Unit (CDU) at Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest.

When the meeting reached the question of the CDU, it was obvious that passions run high about this subject. I have campaigned for six years myself about the need for a new CDU to meet the needs of Pembrokeshire people. Others have campaigned for much longer than me.

Mrs. Evans-Thomas, of Adam's Bucketful of Hope, gave an impassioned speech, from the public area, which reminded the Hywel Dda Health Board and Community Health Council about the long struggle that has been embarked upon to get a new CDU in place.

Years and years of fighting and fundraising and up to now, all for nothing. I also said my piece about the journey I had been on in this struggle, also being a patient of the CDU and Ward 10.

I, myself, did a Freedom of Information request some time ago to raise the question of charitable donations and how they were being used. This did not prove very popular with the Health Board as I passed the information to the local press and it caused quite a stir at the time, but it did lead to promises of, yes, we are now seriously looking into the new CDU.

The charitable funds is still a hot topic as the way donations are listed and held has now changed. There were CDU stakeholders meetings, which I attended and then suddenly in June 2012 they stopped.

A few meetings were arranged after this and then cancelled at short notice, but in effect they stopped. So the new CDU disappeared again.

Out of sheer desperation, I wrote, on November 20, 2012, basically the same letter to Chris Martin (LHB chairman), Mandy Davies (hospital acute services general manager) and Mark Drakeford (minister for health and social services at the Welsh Assembly).

I asked for an honest answer to the question 'Will we be getting a new CDU or not?'

The letters from Mr. Martin and Mrs. Davies were the same and could have been copied and pasted, and just said services were being reviewed.

Over the last six years I have been involved they have never been able to make a decision for some reason or another, despite the fact that a huge amount has been raised by 'Pembrokeshire people' to get this CDU done.

Mr. Drakeford (Health Minister) said in his reply to me that: "I have been informed that the Health Board is planning to create a CDU at Withybush Hospital by refurbishing existing accommodation with funds from local fundraising."

He also said that: "I have written to Chris Martin, the chair of Hywel Dda Health Board, and asked him to respond to you directly." I am still awaiting that reply.

So the CDU has gone from a 'new' CDU to a refurbishment of the existing accommodation.

The letter was the first I had heard of this and even at the meeting it was not said if this was true or not.

The Health Board representatives at the meeting certainly knew they had been in a meeting, as many CHC members also asked lots of difficult questions about the CDU and where all the funds raised had gone, and what was the total money held for this project.

Promises were again made at the meeting to 'look seriously' into the matter of the CDU and get some definitive answers about when, where and monies held.

So, I ask will it ever happen? Will Pembrokeshire ever see a new or, for that matter, refurbished CDU? Pembrokeshire cancer patients and their carers are concerned that services will all end up in Carmarthen, which already has a new CDU.

I would urge the people of Pembrokeshire to keep asking questions about this by phone, letter and e-mail and to attend the CHC meetings to ask questions directly.

All that is wanted is an honest answer... Yes or No.

Lyn Neville,

Charity co-ordinator,

Pembrokeshire

Cancer Support,

Pembroke Dock.