JUBILANT health chiefs have placed an order for a near £1 million piece of life-saving medical equipment - paid for by the people of East Lancashire.

The East Lancashire SuperScan Appeal has hit the golden figure which paves the way for the arrival of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner, which will detect a range of life-threatening conditions, including cancers.

The heads of two East Lancashire health trusts today joined appeal chairman Mike Trickett in thanking fundraisers who have helped push the appeal to the £880,000 mark, which includes a huge £152,000 from August's Motorway Superwalk.

They are confident of raising the remaining £35,000 needed to fully fund the machine early in the New Year and hope to see it in action by late spring. The purchase of the machine, which will be housed in Blackburn Royal Infirmary, was approved at a meeting of the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust yesterday. A powerful 1 tesla machine, which will be bought from IGE Ltd, has been selected with a stronger field strength for better images and a broader range of investigation.

Mr Trickett said: "To raise almost £900,000 in just over two years is a marvellous tribute to the kindness and generosity of you all.

"The SuperScan Appeal has been something that I personally have been proud to be associated with and now that we are almost within touching distance of our target, everybody who has either been connected with or has donated to the appeal, must have a feeling of great personal satisfaction." Money for the scanner, which will avoid the need for exploratory surgery, has been raised over a period of two and a quarter years.

Chairman Ian Woolley and Mr John Thomas, chief executive of Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust, said in a joint statement: "The MRI scanner will bring great benefit to the people of East Lancashire. "We would like to thank all those volunteers who worked so hard to raise funds for the appeal. "We would also like to thank Mike Trickett for doing such a splendid job as appeal chairman."

David Chew, chief executive of Burnley NHS Trust, added: "I would like to endorse the comments of Mike Trickett, Ian Woolley and John Thomas and thank those people of East Lancashire who have so generously contributed to this appeal.

"The provision of an MRI Scanner illustrates the determination of health trusts in East Lancashire to provide top class services for our patients."

The appeal has been stroingly supported by the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

Editor Peter Butterfield said: "I just knew that the people of East Lancashire would do it. I knew this scanner appeal would be more difficult than the last appeal because financial circumstances have changed and we now have the National Lottery.

"But to raise not far short of £1 million in about two years is phenomenal. I think local people had a lot of fun in raising the cash."

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