Breast cancer screening sessions will now take place five days a week in a supermarket car park after store bosses relented.

Thousands of women will be invited for a routine screening in a mobile unit at the Tesco car park in Lewes over the next three months.

The Sussex Cancer Network says it is grateful managers have allowed the screening but the development has come too late for those already given an appointment for Brighton.

The Argus recently reported how the store had refused to let the network use its car park because it needed the space for shoppers.

A compromise was eventually reached, which let network staff work from the site on Mondays to Thursdays but not Fridays.

It meant hundreds of women would have to travel to Brighton if given an appointment for a Friday.

Now store manager Chris Mooney has agreed to the network's original five day a week request.

Linda Garvican, co-ordinator of the breast screening programme in East Sussex and Brigh-ton and Hove, said: "I am delighted at this good news for the women of Lewes and would like to thank the management of Tesco very much for agreeing to this at the eleventh hour.

"Unfortunately as screening is due to start in a few days, the concession has come too late for some women who have already received invitations to go to Brighton.

"This is still necessary in order for us to screen everyone before the mobile has to move to Crowborough later in the summer.

"The timetable is tight because the programme is full to capacity. I would therefore like to encourage everyone to attend, even though it may be inconvenient."

The screening programme uses mobile units on community sites because it wants to offer the service close to where women live.

More women are likely to take up the offer if it is easy to get to a screening but if they do not have a car and are faced with a longer or more awkward journey then some may not be able to go.

Tesco said it supported the work being done by the breast screening initiative and had agreed to do what it could to help meet its demands.

It said demand for car parking spaces at peak times on Fridays was high and it needed to balance shoppers' needs as well.

But after consideration it was felt that as the service would not operate at weekends or in the evenings, it could run throughout the working week so more women could be seen locally.