Aurora—which means a new dawn in Italian— opened at Mexborough Montagu five years ago but the concept started in 2002 when a group of cancer patients, including founder member the late Valerie Lepedat, together with the support of Lynne Rothwell, the then General Manager for Surgery they campaigned for a beauty room at Doncaster Royal Infirmary.

The group asked for somewhere to get advice and a bit of pampering to make the experience more personable.

Thanks to the Fred and Ann Green Fund, a legacy left to the Doncaster & Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust by two Mexborough residents, they were successful in being allocated £105,000 over five years to set up the first Aurora Centre within the hospital at Doncaster Royal Infirmary.

From successful fundraising including the annual Aurora & Friends Fashion Show and thanks to the continued support of the Trust the project has developed into the Aurora Centre at Montagu Hospital a refurbished bungalow which opened in 2005.

Thanks to a further donation from the Fred and Ann Green Legacy an extension and refurbishment was recently completed at the Centre at Montagu providing an extra treatment room which was very kindly kitted out by the Montagu Hospitals Comfort Fund.

There are now more than 20 volunteers at both sites along with a team of part-time staff.