ABOUT 120 cancer survivors celebrated life at the Colchester Moot Hall.

The Life After Breast Cancer event, now in its 13th consecutive year, is organised by the Friends of Essex County Hospital Breast Care Unit and coincides with Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which runs throughout October.

The guests were treated to tea, coffee and cake, as well as live entertainment.

Caroline Bates, fundraising manager for Colchester Hospitals Charity, also spoke about an ambitious new project to bring cancer services, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, together in a new centre.

The £4.5million centre would be built on top of the recently-opened state-of-the-art radiotherapy centre.

The appeal, which is supported by the Gazette, is the biggest in the hospital’s history.

Staff from the Chelmsford and Colchester NHS Breast Screening Service were also at the event.

Karen Reeve, breast care nurses secretary at Colchester General Hospital, said: “October can be a particularly difficult time of year for patients who are newly-diagnosed, receiving treatment or who have had breast cancer in the past.

“This is due to so much attention being given to breast cancer because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“The Colchester Breast Unit believes a helpful approach is to promote that there is life after breast cancer, which is why an afternoon tea party has become such a well-established part of our calendar.”