IF ANYONE can get 5,000 people to donate £2 a month to keep a chemotherapy outreach project in rural communities including Tavistock and Liskeard running Deborah Ward can.

Several years ago Deborah was diagnosed with breast cancer, when her daughter was just five years old. She received treatment at Kingsbridge Hospital as part of a pilot outreach scheme, enabling her to maintain as normal a life as she could.

Deborah is determined to see a project she helped get off the ground continue indefinitely but to do that she needs 5,000 people to donate £2 a month. The service costs £120,000 a year to run.

Deborah's drive and personal experience has won her a place on the Vodaphone World of Difference UK Programme whereby 500 people across the country start work for a charity of their choice and get paid for it.

Over the next two months she will raise awareness and funds for the outreach project and the Triangle support centres in Tavistock, Liskeard and Kingsbridge.

Up to ten people a day are receiving treatment at each of the three hospitals and are becoming a vital part of the community.

Deborah said: 'The outreach and triangle centres are very close to my heart having received the support offered during my own diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer.

'This treatment is not pleasant for anyone so being able to undergo the majority of it as close to home as possible was a godsend as I was desperate to maintain as normal a life as possible for my little girl during this tough time.

'With cancer on the increase, providing chemotherapy in our cottage hospitals not only helps the patients by reducing travelling and having their treatments closer to home, it also helps alleviate congestion at our busy city hospitals.

Deborah has given up her day job working at a beach cafe in Salcombe for two months and is meeting with patients and people involved with the outreach project face to face.

She will also be meeting with the league of friends at Tavistock Hospital.