Former Health Secretary opens world-class centre for scanning

The Jack Brignall Scanning Centre in Hull offers services to diagnose cancer, heart disease and shortly dementia to North and North East Lincolnshire, East Yorkshire and parts of North Yorkshire.

Baroness Bottomley, who is also the Chancellor of the University of Hull and Sheriff, will be joined by Daisy Appeal founder Professor Nick Stafford, who will address guests about the benefits of the PET-CT scanner.

The centre, the first of its kind in the UK, replaces a mobile scanner which previously served the region from Hull Royal Infirmary, and means more patients across the region can get access to potentially life-saving scans.

The Daisy Appeal is also funding vital research at the University of Hull into the use of radioactive tracers for diagnosing cancer, heart disease and dementia.

The work puts Hull at the forefront of diagnostic research into the three conditions, which are among the UK’s biggest killers.

Professor Stafford said: “Virginia Bottomley is well known as a champion of Hull and the wider region, her role at the university and her former position as Secretary of State for Health, so it is extremely fitting that she should officially open the Jack Brignall Scanning Centre.

“The centre is the product of a lot of hard work by a great many people and it is an extremely proud day to see it finally declared open.

“The health benefits it will bring to the people of the Humber and beyond are immeasurable and as the research at Hull University continues, they will grow over the coming years.”

The Daisy Appeal now intends to raise more than £2m to construct a building to house a state-of-the-art, tabletop cyclotron – a device which makes radioactive tracers used when scanning for certain conditions such as dementia and heart disease.