Funding success to bring £2m scanner to Yorkshire

PATIENTS WILL benefit from pioneering new treatments after a fundraising campaign for highpowered scanning equipment reached its £2m target.

More than 11,000 donations were made after a campaign was launched by the University of Sheffield to fund Yorkshire’s first MRI-PET scanner.

The equipment combines two scanning methods to produce detailed views inside the human body, helping medics tackle devastating illness like motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s, dementia and multiple sclerosis.

Professor Koen Lamberts, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, said: “The success of this fundraising campaign is a fantastic achievement and marks the beginning of an exciting journey for the University, the Sheffield city region and beyond. I am extremely proud that Sheffield will now be home to one of only eight MRIPET scanners in the UK.”

The scanner will boost the work of Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience, which is carrying out research into motor neurone disease (MND). The facility will also bring more groundbreaking clinical trials to the region, meaning patients will take part in the latest research into their conditions.

The fundraising campaign was led by Prof Dame Pam Shaw, vicepresident and head of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health at the university.

She said: “This will be the only MRI-PET scanner in Yorkshire, so it will be of great benefit to people in Sheffield and across the wider region. We also hope that the pioneering research that the scanner makes possible will have a global impact and benefit people across the world.”

Work on the Sheffield Scanner facility, attached to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, is set to begin this month.