A WIFE who is campaigning for a kidney dialysis centre in Banbury believes the cold weather has strengthened her case.

Miranda Berry said the heavy snow meant her husband Steven’s round trip to Oxford’s Churchill Hospital for treatment took nine hours instead of the usual six.

She also said the transport unit had to get a four-wheel-drive vehicle to ferry patients to dialysis appointments.

Mrs Berry, 50, of Kenilworth Way, Banbury, said delays due to the weather backed her case for a unit at Banbury’s Horton Hospital.

Had there been a local renal unit, 51-year-old Mr Berry could have walked there in 15 minutes, she said.

Mrs Berry said: “The driver was four hours late and came from Milton Keynes, then had to collect patients from Banbury, Chipping Norton, Brackley and Bicester before going to the Churchill Hospital.

“In the end it took nine hours door-to-door for Steven to travel to Oxford and back and have his treatment.”

Mr Berry’s treatment had to be cut to three-and-a-half hours, though this had no adverse health effects.

“We are going to keep having this bad weather and therefore going to keep having problems with transport.

“We could have walked to the Horton in 15 minutes. Steven could have got there in plenty of time for a 7am start.”

Mrs Berry launched a campaign for a new unit after becoming concerned the three trips a week to Oxford were taking their toll on her husband.

She was told by the trust in charge of health care that there needed to be 24 dialysis patients living in north Oxfordshire to make a satellite unit viable.

But that figure has since been changed to 28 patients and NHS Oxfordshire said a unit would not be set up before 2011.

Mother-of-three Mrs Berry said she has received tremendous local support, with many saying they were grateful for her efforts.

Meanwhile, the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital Trust, which runs the Churchill and Horton hospitals, has to make savings of £44m this year.

Andrew Stevens, director of planning and information for the ORH, said: “We are continuing to develop plans for a dialysis unit at the Horton General Hospital.

“Once these are ready, we would hope to be able to agree the timescale for taking this initiative forward with our commissioners, NHS Oxfordshire, during the new financial year of 2010/2011.”