THE founder of a charity that brings life-saving treatment closer to cancer patients has been named a woman of the year.

Christine Mills was one of 400 women of achievement invited to a special event hosted by radio presented Sandy Toksvig to celebrate the difference they made to other people.

Hope for Tomorrow, the charity she started in 2003, provides mobile chemotherapy in specially equipped HGVs that travel to towns and rural areas including Royal Wootton Bassett, Purton, Moredon and West Swindon.

She won the Inspiring Reader award from women’s magazine Good Housekeeping after being nominated by friend Pat Pearson.

Afterwards the charity said in a statement: “We are all so thrilled and excited for Christine. She is a remarkable lady who has created something so inspiring and has helped an enormous number of people over the years through her hard work and determination.

“She is nothing if not, fully deserving and more of this award.”

It is the second award for the charity to come within a matter of months. Earlier this year it was given the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

Before the final awards were handed out Christine said her invitation to the Women of the Year lunch as well as the Queen’s Award had made 2016 a special year for the organisation and she was honoured that its work had been recognised.

Other winners included Margaret Aspinall who worked tirelessly for 27 years to uncover the truth of what happened at the Hillsborough football stadium disaster; Seema Aziz, who set up a foundation giving children in rural Pakistan the chance of an education and investigative journalist Marjorie Wallace, who campaigned for three decades to improve the availability of mental health services in the UK.

Christine started the charity after losing her husband David to cancer. During his treatment she saw first-hand the suffering endured on car journeys to oncology units in regional hospitals.

Talking to consultant Dr Sean Elyan, she learned about his idea of bringing treatment closer to patients.

A £150,000 fundraising campaign began and in 2007 a mobile unit named Helen hit the road for the first time, launched by patron Sir Stirling Moss.

Three more were launched before Kayleigh, the unit based at the Great Western Hospital, was introduced.

Hope for Tomorrow now has ten units based around the country, saving patients the discomfort and inconveniences of travelling long distances and the stress of parking.

The fundraising continues and earlier this month the charity teamed up with Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, founder of The Black Farmer food brand, to film a Christmas Day TV advert.

He is currently fighting myeloid leukaemia and got involved after discovering its website during a stay in hospital.

Christine said: “This is one of the biggest campaigns Hope for Tomorrow has been involved in to date and we are hoping that through this collaboration, we will be able to create mass awareness for our charity and to boost the fundraising for our mobile chemotherapy unit project which will enable us to keep the wheels turning and bring cancer care closer to patients’ homes.”