A CAMPAIGN for a £100,000 dialysis centre in north Oxfordshire has taken a major step forward after hospital bosses confirmed two potential sites had been found.

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust has drawn up plans for two empty areas at Banbury’s Horton Hospital that could be used as a kidney dialysis unit for up to 20 patients.

It will be in the old pathology department or former HR department, recently used as a temporary cancer centre while the Brodey Centre was extended.

The move will be good news for dialysis patients in north Oxfordshire who currently make a 50-mile round trip to Oxford’s Churchill Hospital for treatment.

Plans and costs will go to health chiefs early next month for approval.

Banbury campaigner Miranda Berry, 51, whose husband Steven has to travel to the Churchill three times a week, welcomed the news.

She said: “Steven is in tears, we still can’t believe it. Steven had given up hope, but I didn’t.

“I have known Steven since we were six and lived in the same street, and I have seen him decline over the years, through unhappiness and tiredness.

“If there was one thing I could do for him it was this. It will change Steven’s life.”

Director of clinical services Paul Brennan said: “We have identified two possible spaces, but are still looking at other sites within the Horton too.

“Once a viable business case is developed, there would be no need for delay in pushing forward with the plans to provide this much-needed dialysis unit.”