A FRUSTRATED Crewe woman was forced to miss an important breast cancer screening at Leighton Hospital after searching in vain for an hour for a car parking space.

Judy Fox, 64, was due for a mammogram as part of the programme of breast cancer screening for women over 50.

Knowing parking at the hospital can take some time, she decided to set off early, arriving at Leighton at 9.45am for her 10.50am appointment.

But after driving around the car park for an hour desperately searching for a space, she missed her appointment.

Now, she fears other people will either miss vital treatment or be deterred from going to the hospital at all for fear of not being able to park.

Mrs Fox, of Darley Avenue, Crewe, said: 'I made sure I was there early but, I ended up driving around so long I missed the appointment and there were plenty of other people getting frustrated as well.

'What worries me is your access to health care is a lottery depending on whether you can park or not, and I would not like to think people might be put off from going to one of these examinations for this reason and then find months later that they've got a lump in their breast.'

And she added that despite how desperate she was to get to the appointment, she was fearful of parking on the grass verges because of the number of parking tickets that have been issued to drivers who give up on going round in circles looking for spaces.

She added: 'They need to do something about it because it's as bad as it can get at the moment.'

Leighton chief executive Stephen Eames said: 'The clinical needs of our patients is our priority and we don't want to see patient's missing appointments as a result of not being able to find a space on our car parks.

'If someone is struggling to park their car and feels they may miss their appointment, they should speak to one of our security officers who regularly patrol the car parks.

'While we wouldn't encourage visitors to park outside the designated parking bays, if it is absolutely necessary to do so, please inform reception staff so that, if your car does need to be moved, we know how or where to contact you.'

* A door-to-door service for people who cannot use a standard bus due to their disability is available from 8.30am-4.30pm. For further details, phone Neil Duncalf on 01270 211884.