HEALTH bosses have targeted £424,000 at combating cancer.

Teesside Health Action Zone has allocated the cash to schemes including work to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy, accelerating the turnaround time of tests, and on prevention and awareness-raising works.

The projects are supported by the Cancer Care Alliance, a network of specialists and professionals across Teesside and parts of North Yorkshire and South Durham.

Although the work will be carried out on Teesside, knowledge gained as a result will be shared with the other areas.

Other schemes involved include working to improve access to services for suspected sufferers, the appointment of two Macmillan Nurses to work with hospitals, hospices and GP practices, and developing chemotherapy services at North Tees Hospital.

There will also be acupuncture offered to 40 chemotherapy receivers, to study its effect in reducing nausea, and diagnostic facilities in laboratories at Middlesbrough General Hospital will be modernised.

The money will also contribute to the creation of a register of all patients referred for breast cancer since April 1999, and increase the uptake of cervical screening.

Various schemes have also been designed to improve the information regarding cancer services, and there are plans to set up a cancer information point, using touch screens, in hospitals and major clinics across Teesside.

Health Action Zone manager Jim Wilson said: "This money is being put where it is most needed - on schemes chosen by patients themselves and people working in hospitals, health centres and GP surgeries to combat the effect of cancer on Teesside."

Cancer Care Alliance director Pat Keane said: "The schemes funded by the Health Action Zone aim to make a real difference to the quality of care for patients on Teesside, and in raising awareness of the importance of early detection of cancer and the benefits of health lifestyles."