CANCER patient Clive Vassell and his wife Pam are supporting the appeal for a new chemotherapy day unit at Bronglais Hospital and are looking forward to a modern, fit-for-the-future unit with a new layout.

Clive was diagnosed with cancer of the blood aged 55 after falling seriously ill while on holiday in the Dominican Republic with his wife Pamela.

In the video, Clive says: “I can’t say enough about the staff, they are absolutely fantastic, every single one of them, and I think they all have a different part to play.

“But the lack of privacy is quite frustrating.

“When you’re initially told you’ve got this disease, you want to keep that personal, you want to keep it to yourself and your immediate family, and obviously the people who care for you as well. So, the last thing you expect when you go into hospital is to have everyone walking through there seeing what’s going on, seeing what’s wrong with you almost.

“It became almost embarrassing to be sitting there thinking: who’s going to walk in now? Do I know that person? I haven’t told them about this illness I’ve got. And will they pass it on to anyone else that I might know or not know.

“And it must the same for the staff there as well; they want to have a one-to-one and they can’t really do that sometimes because of what’s going on in the background.”

Clive’s concerns are echoed by his wife Pam, who says: “I think it would make an enormous difference just to have that privacy. People are walking through all the time. There are some other surgeries at the other end of the room as well.

“Sometimes patients may not feel very comfortable with perhaps how they look or how they feel. And for families it’s very distressing as well as for the patient.

“They might be upset, they might feel there are questions they want to ask which they can’t because there are too many people around, so I think it would make a massive, massive difference just to be able to have some space on your own to be able to heal and not feel as if everyone’s looking at you all the time.”

Clive, who lives in Corris, was having his first chemotherapy session at Bronglais Hospital on Christmas Eve and this was followed by two or three-weekly infusions for seven months. He still goes to the day unit at Bronglais every two months for a Zometa infusion to help strengthen his bones.

To find out more about the appeal, go to www.hywelddahealthcharities­.org.uk