A north-west weekly has launched a one-year campaign to raise £250,000 towards a new cancer unit at a hospital on its patch.

The Salford Advertiser is calling on readers and local businesses to support its mission to raise the cash which help with the building of the £17m radiotherapy centre Salford Royal Hospital.

It will be managed by Christie, the world famous cancer hospital in Withington, south of Manchester, and the Advertiser has set up a dedicated page on Christie’s website to receive donations.

The first bricks have been laid on the site by Salford Advertiser editor Simon Keegan and Christie community fundraiser Ste Anderson with a planned opening in 2011.

Once up and running, the centre will be able to treat up to 70 patients a day from Salford, Wigan and Bolton.

The Advertiser’s sister daily the Manchester Evening News recently ran a successful campaign to help recoup £6.5m which Christie lost in the Icelandic banking collapse.

Simon said: “We all need to ‘adopt’ the cause – this is something which involves everyone.

“We all know someone who has battled cancer, whether it’s a friend, colleague or close family member.

“What better way to remember them than by bringing top class treatment to the city.”

The unit, which will be equipped with two radiotherapy machines costing £1.3m and £2.5m respectively, will care for patients with breast, bowel and lung cancer who are currently treated at the Withington site.

It will also be equipped to deliver stereotactic radiosurgery, a highly specialised neurosurgery technique for brain cancers.

This will make it one of only a handful of such centres in the UK and mean that patients living in Greater Manchester won’t have to travel to Sheffield for treatment.