CHRISTINE Mills MBE, founder of cancer charity Hope for Tomorrow, will join over 400 women from all walks of life at the Women of the Year Lunch as a 2016 Woman of Achievement.

Mrs Mills is attending in celebration of her work in launching the world's first custom-designed mobile chemotherapy unit (MCU), in partnership with the NHS, in 2007, with the aim of bringing cancer treatment closer to home.

Since then the charity has provided another 10 units around the country, including Wiltshire, saving patients valuable travel and waiting time and the stress of parking at hospital oncology units.

Hope for Tomorrow is based in Tetbury, where Mrs Mills lives.

She founded the charity when her husband, David, was taken ill with cancer and she was struck by the difficulties faced by cancer patients in travelling long distances for chemotherapy.

"I'm delighted and honoured to be invited to the Women of the Year celebration in London, and that the dedicated work of Hope for Tomorrow has been recognised in this way," she said.

"I am so proud that the charity was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation earlier this year; this, coupled with my being invited to the Women of the Year lunch makes 2016 a special year for us all.

"My dream, and that of my wonderful team, is to help cancer patients throughout the country, providing a better experience of treatment for them.

"Our aim is to have at least one mobile chemotherapy unit in every county by 2025."

This year's event takes place on Monday, October 17, at the InterContinental London Park Lane Hotel.

Each guest is regarded as a ‘Woman of the Year' and represents not only herself, but the millions of women who make a difference every day.

Previous attendees have included Nicole Kidman, Fern Britton, Professor Mary Beard, Mel Giedroyc, Nadiya Hussein, Sally Lindsay, Lindsay Lohan, Dame Ellen MacArthur, Eimear McBride, Lulu, Dame Harriet Walter, Julie Walters CBE and Dame Jacqueline Wilson.

Sandi Toksvig, president of Women of the Year, said: "I'm looking forward to welcoming all our guests and winners to the Women of the Year Lunch & Awards in London this October.

"I would love to show the room to every schoolgirl growing up in Britain today and tell them ‘you can be whatever you want to be: just look at these incredible women'."

More information about Hope for Tomorrow can be found here

The charity's 11 units are operational in north and south Wiltshire, Berkshire, Cornwall, east Essex, east Kent, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, Somerset and west Suffolk.