HALESOWEN osteoporosis sufferer Betty Holden got to meet Prime Minister Tony Blair (Friday May 25) when he offically opened the new clinic that she has spent the last ten years campaigning for.

The outgoing PM stopped off to see the new £200,000 screening and osteoporosis service at Corbett Outpatients Centre in Stourbridge as part of a farewell tour before he officially hands over power to Prime Minister in waiting Gordon Brown.

And the visit was the icing on the cake for 71-year-old Betty from Two Gates Lane who, as secretary of the Dudley and District Support Group of the National Osteoporosis Society, has spearheaded the drive for a complete close-to-home service for osteoporosis sufferers in the Dudley borough.

She said: "It was lovely - this clinic is most important because people won't have to travel distances to get the service they require. I went to Birmingham for my first scan 15 years ago but I'm hoping to get referred here now."

During the visit the PM met Dudley Group of Hospitals consultants and student nurses and doctors and saw the new state-of-the-art DEXA scanner which measures bone density.

He told the News: "To see the new building and technology being used to give people better up-to-the-minute care and faster access to it is very impressive - and this is how health care is changing."

Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust bosses expect up to 4,000 patients a year from the borough and beyond will use the new screening facility and specialist osteoporosis clinic.