A charity which helps multiple sclerosis sufferers is hoping to end a seven-year search for a new home by expanding into a former office block.

The Norwich and District branch of the MS Society runs a treatment centre in Witard Road, Heartsease, but rising numbers of people are coming to them for help, prompting the search for a new home.

The centre can treat 20 people, but a move to the empty Leiden House at Iceni Court, which has stood empty since December 2010, will mean 30 to 40 people a day can get help.

Staff at the centre have looked at 23 sites in the last seven years before putting in the planning application for Leiden House in Delft Way, near the airport.

Head of Support Services at the charity Diane Proctor said: 'We are having to turn people away and that is not what we are about.

'We try and get as many people in the building as we can but it is extremely difficult.'

The rooms will have space for yoga, physiotherapy and massage for patients from across Norfolk in a �180,000 refurbishment.

The planing application to Norwich City Council said their Witard Road site was 'very restricted'.

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