TWO cancer sufferers have set up a town's first support group for people with the disease.

George Wilkinson and Jeanne Whitehead decided to set up the Helping Hands Cancer Support Group in Chester-le-Street when they realised there was no support in the area.

But unlike conventional support groups, Helping Hands will take a holistic approach, offering complementary therapies, nutritional advice, counselling and meditation.

The North-East has one of the worst records for cancer in England with more than 2,500 new registrations of the disease every year in County Durham alone.

Mrs Whitehead said: "As members of other support groups we realised that there was no support for all forms of cancer in the Chester-le-Street area.

"There are two women's breast cancer groups in Stanley and Durham, but this new group should be able to help people over a 12-mile radius that covers Newcastle, Gateshead, South Shields, Sunderland, Washington and Derwentside.

"Groups like this are vitally important. There isn't the support in the community to help people who have been given this dreadful news."

The group's holistic approach means the mind, body and spirit - not just the physical effects - are treated and support offered.

Weapons in the cancer-fighting armoury include herbalism, meditation and guided visualisation - imagining and mentally destroying individual cancer cells.

Mrs Whitehead, 53, who is diagnosed with terminal cancer, added: "We like to think of the treatment and support of cancer clients as a battle.

"If you have conventional medicine working for you that is just one 'battalion'. If you have a more holistic approach you can have three or four 'battalions' on your side.

"More and more people are being diagnosed with cancer and more people are aware that they have to check themselves. Therefore the more variety of treatments, the better the chance of controlling this disease."

The group's first meeting is to be held at Chester-le-Street Hospital on Thursday, October 5, from 7pm to 9.45pm. Meetings will be held on the first Thursday of every month. More information is available from Mr Wilkinson on 0191- 388 5893 or Mrs Whitehead on 0191-373 7475.