Rotarians Bob Stanley of Mudgee, John Bullock of Wellington and Tom Dwyer of Forbes were invited to view the sites to see how Rotary fundraising initiatives for Cancer Care Western NSW will be put to use.

“These gentlemen and their fundraising organisations have given us a great vote of faith by giving us funding for our lodge,” Cancer Care Western NSW chairman John Carpenter said.

“We thought it was important to have them down here to see what’s happening and hopefully they’ll go back excited about this complex.”

Wellington, Forbes and Mudgee have set fundraising targets of $50,000, which would allow for a room in the $2 million 14 room Care West Lodge complex to be named after each of the towns.

Forbes Rotary president Tom Dwyer said he was excited by the prospect that cancer patients in the region would no longer have to travel to metropolitan areas for radiotherapy or other cancer treatments.

“It will be of great benefit because it is so close to Western New South Wales,” he said.

“It will cut the cost of travel and they’ll be living in their own environment.”

Cancer Care Western NSW regional fundraising coordinator Jan Savage said construction of Care West Lodge would need to begin by mid-2010 if the facility is to be completed at the same time as the new Orange Base Hospital’s cancer unit in 2011.

She said the organisation still needed to raise additional funds of up to $1.5 million for the complex.