NEW hospital facilities paid for by a charity set up in memory of an inspirational teenager are set to be unveiled.

The Tom Bowdidge Foundation handed over £25,000 to Colchester General Hospital in order to fund areas specifically for young adult and teenage patients.

Tom died aged 19, in 2012, after fighting an aggressive stomach cancer.

He had been diagnosed at the Turner Road hospital and received some of his treatment in the cancer wards at Essex County Hospital, where dad Richard used to sleep on the floor to be with his son.

The charity’s cash has been used to fund part of a young adult quiet space in the outpatient department, new furniture in an en suite single room which means a parent can stay overnight comfortably, and furniture in a young adults clinic room in the Mary Barron suite.

All three rooms are used exclusively by teenagers and young adults fighting cancer.

The outpatient quiet space is used by patients and their families when they attend appointments. The foundation has paid for a complete redecoration of the room, including wall art, new lighting, new flooring and new furniture.

Thanks to the charity, the overnight room, based in West Bergholt ward, now has a parent’s pull-out bed, new lighting, wall art, a television and a window blind.

The clinical room has benefitted from a new treatment chair as well as four new chairs for patients’ families, a TV, wall art and a new blind.

Tom’s family - dad Richard, mum Nikki and sister Emma - will officially unveil the new facilities on Tuesday.

Mrs Bowdidge, of Firmins Court, West Bergholt, said: “We are delighted to have been able to create these wonderful rooms at Colchester General Hospital.

“This was very much at the heart of Tom’s vision, to improve facilities locally that are more age appropriate in their design.

“We hope these rooms will now make a young cancer patient’s treatment more comfortable and private.”

Lea Kirton, clinical nurse specialist for teenagers and young adults with cancer, added: “It’s wonderful we at Colchester General Hospital are now able to support the best possible care in an appropriate environment for our young people with cancer.

“A young patient told me recently that moving into our newly decorated designated room on West Bergholt ward had ‘brightened’ up her day and made her smile.

“She has found the mood lighting relaxing and it has helped her to sleep.”

In the 13 months between Tom’s diagnosis and his death, the Colchester Royal Grammar School pupils raised £178,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The foundation was launched on Tom’s 20th birthday February 28, 2014.

To date, it has raised more than £500,000.