LOMIE, the rare female gorilla that underwent an MRI scan at Blackpool Victoria Hospital on Friday, has been found to have an inoperable tumour in her kidney.

The 31-year-old Western Lowland gorilla from Blackpool Zoo was taken to the Vic for a scan after being unwell for a few weeks and an initial ultrasound scan indicated a possible growth.

Zoo medical staff needed to discover the nature of the growth and were offered the use of the nearest mobile screening unit. But they feared that the amount of sedative the elderly gorilla would need for the trip would have been too dangerous for her.

So Blackpool Victoria Hospital Trust Chief David Gill offered to let Lomie use the MRI scanner after hearing of her plight from zoo vet Mike Fielding.

And hospital staff gave up their free time to help with the scan, which was undertaken out of normal hours so that patient waiting lists would not be compromised. The payment for Lomie's scan was to go back into patient care at the hospital.

Zoo spokesman Tony Williams said that the 18-stone gorilla was sedated at the zoo on East Park Drive before being stretchered by six or seven zoo staff to the hospital in a zoo vehicle.

She was then taken to the MRI scanner on a hospital trolley and scanned to find out more information about the growth in her kidney.

Lomie was not the first animal patient to be scanned at a hospital. In 1994 a gorilla from a zoo in Chicago, USA, was scanned for a brain tumour which was later successfully removed.

And this week the zoo's vet was considering the options for further treatments open to Lomie after the MRI results, announced on Monday, revealed the growth was a tumour.

Mr Williams said that the tumour could possibly be life threatening, although not necessarily an immediate threat.

"We hope that Lomie will have a lot more time and we want to make it quality time for her. She is eating normally and is not in any discomfort.

"She's quite an elderly lady but she's young at heart. There are only about 360 gorillas in captivity in Europe and they are very endangered in Africa so it's important to keep her healthy," he said.