Currently patients from Sutton Coldfield living with cancer and other serious illnesses have to travel outside the town to receive care and support.

This is all set to change with a new St Giles Hospice facility which is set to recieve its first patients in summer 2007.

The facility on Lindridge Road will provide outpatient consultation and treatment, and act as a base for St Giles staff working in the local community.

It will also serve as a meeting and education centre and will be used by other organisations and voluntary cancer support groups.

Sutton Coldfield Municipal Charities provided the site and more than £1.3m towards the planning and building of the facility, while the Muriel Saveker Trust has provided extensive funding to fit it out and to finance one of the Clinical Nurse Specialists working within Sutton Coldfield.

Most recently, funding towards one of the clinical rooms has been given by the former Royal Sutton Fun Run (now the Great Midlands Fun Run).

St Giles will manage the new centre, providing the specialist care for which the hospice is renowned.