THE Lancashire Evening Telegraph has launched its appeal which will save lives and radically improve the treatment of cancer across the whole area.

The East Lancashire Magic Eye Cancer Scanner Appeal aims to raise £200,000 to buy state-of-the-art equipment which will diagnose the types of cancers which are responsible for one in seven cancer deaths in the UK.

Up to 600 people a year develop these types of cancers across East Lancashire and the scanner, an endoscopic ultrasound, will make diagnosis for them quicker, less traumatic and almost 100 per cent accurate, thus helping to save lives.

The equipment our readers help to buy will put East Lancashire on the health map by helping it move one step closer to becoming a regional cancer treatment centre.

It contains a revolutionary "magic eye" which is able to see through layers of the stomach and oesophagus to pinpoint where cancer is and what stage it is at.

The number of cases of cancer in these areas of the body is growing faster than any other type of cancer.

The Evening Telegraph is joining forces with the hospital trusts for Blackburn and Burnley, the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust and the Burnley Healthcare NHS Trust, to run the appeal.

And brewers Daniel Thwaites have backed us by becoming major sponsors and providing a free Magic Eye car sticker for every Evening Telegraph reader who buys tonight's issue.

Prime Minister Tony Blair today gave his full support to the appeal, which will benefit of the whole of East Lancashire.

He said: "I very happily give my endorsement to this important campaign.

"Obviously, the Government is putting a lot of money into this equipment too and we're providing a great deal of extra money -- particularly for cancer research, but I think it's good to involve the local community in the NHS and the local newspaper is one of the best ways of doing it."

Kevin Young, editor of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, said: "This is a wonderful piece of equipment which will undoubtedly save lives but we can't raise this money on our own.

"This newspaper has always had strong links with the community and the people of East Lancashire have an excellent track record in raising money for good causes.

"We need the whole of East Lancashire behind us and everybody to join us in raising the money we need."

Blackburn trust chairman Ian Woolley said: "The East Lancashire Magic Eye cancer scanner will be a really valuable piece of equipment for better diagnosis of cancers.

"This is quite new equipment and we will be the first district hospital to have this equipment in the North West.

"It will be available for patients through East Lancashire and will be operated by consultants from Burnley and Blackburn working together to give better diagnosis and we need to raise £200,000 to have the benefit of this equipment in East Lancashire."

Currently patients from East Lancashire must travel to Liverpool to use the equipment.

Doctors believe what they learn from the revolutionary scanner will improve their diagnoses and help them to treat patients more accurately, by tailoring their treatment to them.

They will also be able to make the service East Lancashire-wide, allowing doctors to specialise and ensuring that patients in Blackburn and Burnley receive a seamless service and could also see patients from other areas coming to East Lancs for treatment.

East Lancashire consultant surgeon David Chang said: "We have nothing like this in the whole of Lancashire at the moment.

"None of the patients in this area have access to this equipment, which we feel is detrimental to the local population.

"This equipment will make a difference in terms of quality of care to those people who have these kinds of cancers.

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