Mobile health unit to offer free hepatitis C checks

Tests are free and there is no need to book an appointment

A touring van offering liver health checks will visit Surrey and Sussex towns to offer free tests for hepatitis C.

Guildford's Royal Surrey County Hospital team will go out on the road to Crawley and Farnham.

The tests are available to all and no appointment is required.

They will be available at the Railway pub car park in Crawley on 18 and 19 June, and in Dogflud Way, Farnham on 25 June.

People can become infected with hepatitis C, a virus, if they come into contact with the blood of an infected person.

It can infect and damage the liver, but often causes no noticeable symptoms until the liver has been significantly damaged.

The BBC previously revealed about 1,750 people in the UK are living with an undiagnosed hepatitis C infection after being given a transfusion with contaminated blood.

The sooner treatment begins after exposure to the virus, the more likely it is to succeed, and Royal Surrey said "highly effective" treatment was available at each of the main hospitals in Surrey.