BY Helen Kay | Monday 16 September 2024
Research and treatment for cancer, dementia and heart disease is set to take a huge step forward after the long-awaited handover of a £9m molecular imaging facility at Castle Hill Hospital in East Yorkshire.
This new research centre complements the existing PET CT scanning centre which has been operating for the last nine years. There are ongoing plans for further development to improve medical services in Hull and the Daisy Appeal is looking to secure new funding of £2.8m for the digital scanner within the next year.
Prof Nick Stafford, a former professor of head and neck surgery, founded the Daisy Appeal in 2000. He remains chair of the charity which created a partnership between the Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Hull.
Stafford said: “We currently carry out 4,500 scans every year in the Jack Brignall Centre but the scanner is at capacity. We are looking to upgrade it to a digital device capable of getting through 7,500 scans per year, but new technology does not come cheap.”
The Daisy Appeal has raised £23m since it launched, and has been central to the £8m Daisy Appeal Medical Research Centre, which opened in 2008, and the £4.5m Jack Brignall PET-CT Scanning Centre that followed in 2014.
At a ceremony to mark the occasion Prof Pat Price, an internationally renowned expert in cancer research, said the significance of the new molecular imaging research centre (MIRC) is underlined by data which shows more must be done to develop a much-needed national cancer recovery plan for the UK.
Prof Pat Price said: “What is happening in Hull with the new MIRC and the Jack Brignall Centre is fantastic but now we need this push in terms of fundraising to show people what we can do.
“We need more capacity in diagnostic imaging otherwise cancer patients in the area are just going to have to wait longer. This will save lives.”
Work on the MIRC commenced in 2018 with completion due in 2021 but construction, complications and equipment delays caused by the impact of Covid have pushed the project back.
Having taken delivery of the facility, Prof Stafford said work will now begin on the commissioning and licensing procedures, with radiotracer production on course to start in the next two months and the cyclotron operational in about six months.
