A fresh public appeal has been launched to raise another £500,000 for the Exeter Leukaemia Fund.

The Express and Echo has already helped fund-raisers meet their original £500,000 target and a new target has been set to help equip the new facilities at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.

The fund, to build a new £2.4m leukaemia unit, was kicked off by the newspaper in 1998 in the wake of a massive surge in new cases.

The extra cash from the extended appeal will pay for a larger unit than was originally planned.

Work has now started on the scheme, which has received massive public support on the back of news and features in the Express. It will treat more than 1,000 patients in the local area.

Sufferer Bob Radcliffe (60), told the paper: "It's terrific news. People have put so much into it. It will be wonderful to see the work start."

Medical experts remain baffled why the South West has seen more new victims than any other region of the country

New cases of non-Hodgkins lymphoma - described as "public enemy number one" - are growing by an alarming rate of 10 per cent a year. The number of cases will have doubled within 10 years.

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