The unit will be developed in an exsiting ward at Addenbrooke's Hospital

The Teenage Cancer Trust unit has been planned for Cambridge's Addenbrooke Hospital, the Regional Cancer Centre for the region, to open in 2008.

The unit will combine state-of-the-art care areas with social and recreational facilities for patients aged between 13 and 22, a trust spokesman said.

The hospital said the unit will be the first of its kind for the region.

It will have computers, games consoles, digitally-controlled lighting, and "cutting edge design", alongside kitchens for patients to prepare their own food.

Walking onto the children's ward with all the poorly babies and little ones was very upsetting Harriet Eldridge

The new unit will be developed within an existing ward and have a mix of in and outpatient beds and day care facilities.

Simon Davies, chief executive of the Teenage Cancer Trust, told BBC News: "Its going to have to tick all the boxes clinically that are required by the conditions and the nurses but its also going to have to tick boxes that young people want in terms of the type of facilities that are going to make a unit special for them.

"Very high technology in terms of audio-visual material, computers and Playstations and those sort pf things are very important to young people."

Harriet Eldridge, from Needingworth, who was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma when she was 14, said: "Being diagnosed with cancer was a shock in itself, but walking onto the children's ward with all the poorly babies and little ones was very upsetting.

"That's why it's so important for teenagers to have their own ward.