Patients have welcomed a £109m cancer centre being built at Oxford's Churchill Hospital during a ceremony to mark the start of the development.

Patsy Williams, 64, of St Clements, Oxford, and Dennis Basten, 73, of Shutford, near Banbury, who have both been given the all-clear after being diagnosed with different forms of the disease, yesterday joined doctors and NHS managers to signal the beginning of building work.

Hospital staff wanted patients to join them in the celebrations, because they have played a vital part in designing the building as part of the ORH Cancer Services Patient and Carer Panel.

The unit, due to open in spring 2008, will bring together diagnostic, medical and surgical services currently at the Churchill in Headington, the nearby John Radcliffe Hospital and the Radcliffe Infirmary in the city centre.

Mrs Williams was told she had mouth cancer in October 2004, and surgeons removed the tumour during a long operation at the JR which included a skin graft from her leg.

She said: "This building will be very impressive when its completed and it's nice that there's been such an emphasis on patients."

Mr Basten was diagnosed with bowel cancer in the same month as Mrs Williams, and has been treated at hospitals across the city.

He explained: "I was given radiotherapy and chemotherapy at the Churchill and had an operation to remove the cancer at the JR. I think the fact that the new cancer centre will be on one site is a tremendous advantage both to the patients and staff. It will also be good for relatives because they suffer quite a bit in some ways they feel more trauma than the patients.

"It's great to witness the first stages of the development."

During the ground-breaking ceremony, cancer specialist Dr Chris Alcock said medics and nurses had dreamed of state-of-the-art facilities since the late 1980s.

He said: "The new centre will be very much patient focused. Our main aim has been to put ourselves in the position of a patient.

"We are also bringing together all the clinicians and all the scientists doing cancer research, and will be in a position to bring all the latest treatments to the bedside for absolutely first-class cancer treatment."