A CONSULTANT who helped establish cancer services at Worcester Royal Infirmary is retiring after nearly 19 years at the Castle Street site.

Colleagues and patients met at the Fownes Hotel to celebrate the retirement of John Mould, who is stepping down from his post at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

The 56-year-old described Worcester as the "jewel in the crown" of his clinical practice and said he had worked with fabulous people in a great back-up team.

Among the hundreds of patients he helped was Chris Price, whose son was dubbed "baby in the box" after gipsies handed over £2,000 in a box for Mr Price, who was left infertile after treatment for Hodgkin's Disease.

Glen Green, chairman of Worcester and District Community Health Council, described his retirement as a big loss to the hospital.

"He was such a wonderful person to so many people," she said.

"Chris Price was literally at death's door. He was very ill when John Mould was treating him.

"His skill and expertise put him into remission and this year Chris is going to be running the London Marathon for Leukaemia Research."

Mr Mould, who had a gynaecological background, trained at Christie Hospital in Manchester.

He had no intention of staying in oncology, but was so impressed he decided to stay in the field and specialised in non-surgical treatments of cancer, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone therapy.

In 1982, he was appointed to Birmingham, which involved covering Worcester, and has helped develop the clinic from humble beginnings.

"There was no chemotherapy and we established it in a very crude way, mixing it ourselves in the clinic. Now we have got a specialist chemotherapist unit, nurses and services," he said.

Cancer is a frightening disease, but Mr Mould said 30-40 per cent of adult solid tumours were now cured and among some groups it could be as high as 90 per cent.

"Most people think you get cancer and that's it. But even if you can't eradicate the disease we can maintain quality of life and increase life expectancy, so although not cured patients live longer and well with appropriate medical management," he said.

"The biggest improvement over the past 20 years in terms of chemotherapy is the total control of side-effects."

Mr Mould said gene therapy, which modifies the behaviour of the cell, is the next step forward in fighting the disease.

"Cells only become malignant if told to so by the nerve cell," he said.

"The first patient treated at the Queen Elizabeth with gene therapy came from Worcester."

Sister Gwynn Smith, who ran Mr Mould's clinic when he first arrived at WRI, said he was one of the most caring people she had ever met.

"He's a very special person. He was quite young for a consultant and, to be honest, he looked like a little boy lost. I took him under my wing and we have been close ever since.

"I've fond memories of him and he was a big asset at WRI."