Fantastic donation for state-of-the-art imaging system gives hope to cancer patients

The £110,000 high-tech equipment, will be placed at the Royal Preston Hospital Rosemere Cancer Centre.

Consultants will use the kit on a daily basis to support the care of patients facing surgery for gynaecological, colorectal and upper GI (upper gastrointestinal tract – oesophagus, stomach and first part of the small intestine) cancers.

Mr Nick Wood, Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist and Chief Clinical Information Officer, who made the bid to Rosemere said the kit would vastly help improve a patient’s quality of life.

He said: “The information the imaging system can supply will help us assess and stage a range of cancers to help prevent under or over treating patients.

“It can also be used in bowel cancer surgery, where a section of the intestine has to be removed because it is diseased.

“The images the system is capable of relaying will show us where best to rejoin the intestine in terms of the healthiest tissue to hopefully prevent any future complications. I believe it will greatly improve patient quality of life.”

The bid was helped made possible by the generous donation of the Preston Muslim Society and the fundraising of the Islamic evening school and nurseries.

Representative Iqbal Adam added: “Thank you to all the Muslim community in the city of Preston for their generous donations.

It is our duty to support our local hospital and the service that they provide to all the communities.

“In 2015 we raised nearly £40,000 to assist lung cancer diagnosis and this year we are very proud to announce that we have managed to raise over £60,000 which is a fantastic effort.

“I would like to give a big thank you to all of the children in the Madrasas (Islamic evening school) and nurseries who played a fundamental part in the fundraising efforts.

“And also thanks to the children from the Little Wonders nursery off Fishwick Parade who were very active in raising funds this year.”

“We aim to do this again next year and assist any local services that will help our communities - this is something the whole Muslim community in Preston will no doubt be very keen to do once again.”

Once in place the new equipment will enable doctors to examine inside patients’ bodies using a special HD laparoscope (probe) using laser fluorescence technology.

Patients undergoing the procedure are first injected with a special fluorescent dye, which the camera can detect. The high definition images are combined with the fluorescence images to identify the potential pattern of spread of cancer into lymph nodes.

Surgeons can then remove specific lymph nodes rather than a whole chain of lymph nodes.

This reduces complications and side effects for patients as well as reducing operation times.

Rosemere Cancer Foundation’s chief officer Sue Thompson said: “We are extremely grateful for this very generous donation.

Although the imaging system will be based here at the Royal Preston Hospital, it will benefit patients from throughout Lancashire and South Cumbria as the hospital is the specialist provider of colorectal, gynaecological and upper GI cancer surgery for the whole region.”

The Preston Mosques and Madrasas who helped with the fundraising efforts included Jamia Masjid, Masjid E Salaam, Quwwat-Ul-Islam, Madina Masjid, Masjid e Falah, Masjide Shuhadaa, Masjid e Saliheen, Eldon Street Masjid, Masjid e Quba and Zakariyya Masjid.