THE wife of former England cricketer Ian Botham has added her voice to a storm of protest gathering at the planned move of a hospital unit for leukaemia patients.

Kathy Botham, whose husband has raised millions of pounds for leukaemia research, was patron of a fund that raised almost £300,000 in the late 1980s for a haematology unit at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

But bosses at County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust want to move the six-bed in-patient unit to Bishop Auckland General Hospital and merge it with the six-bed in-patient unit there.

The unit's consultant haematologist, Dr Peter Williamson, is against the move, believing leukaemia patients should be on the same site as the other acute services available at the Memorial.

Mrs Botham, of Ravensworth, North Yorkshire, whose husband is president of Leukaemia Research, said: "I did fight very long and hard with the group of people for Darlington Memorial Hospital. I'm quite taken aback at the news.

"If the consultant feels like that, then I would support him. He's the hands-on person.

"I don't know who makes these decisions, but I would think that the people who actually work in the unit, and the consultant in charge, should have their views taken very seriously."

Mrs Botham shares her husband's commitment to fundraising for leukaemia research.

The former Durham all-rounder, and one of England's greatest players, completed a series of eight sponsored walks in the 1980s and 1990s, which raised more than £4.5m for the charity.

Members of the original fundraising committee for the Darlington unit plan to fight the proposals, as revealed in The Northern Echo last Thursday.

Cindy Render, 54, of Red Hall, Darlington, began raising cash for the unit in 1987 when her daughter, Lisa Liddle, then 14, was treated at the Memorial for a serious blood disorder.

She said: "I was shocked when I saw the story in The Northern Echo.

"It feels like we've been kicked in the teeth.

"There must be plenty of people in Darlington who need the unit. They'll be gutted if they have to travel."

Former BBC Radio Cleveland broadcaster Allene Norris, who started the fund after her husband, David, died of leukaemia, said: "To find out they are considering taking it out of Darlington is a stab in the back for all those people who raised the money."

George Kirkham, whose father was treated at the Memorial several times in the late 1980s, branded the move a disgrace.

David Kirkham lost his fight against lymphoma in 1989, but his family were so grateful to the hospital they raised thousand of pounds for the leukaemia unit fund.

Mr Kirkham, who raised money with his mother, Noreen, said: "I think it's a disgrace that they want to do this after all the fundraising that was done.

"We are very upset that it could be moved."

A trust spokesman said a public meeting of the trust board would be held before a final decision was made.

Lousie Robson, the trust's executive director of planning, told a member of the original committee in an email: "The majority view is that the long-term future of the in-patient service is best served at Bishop Auckland General Hospital, but it is still early days in terms of working through all of the detail."