Women waiting for breast MRI scans in the Bristol area will be scanned sooner thanks to a new £1.5 million MRI scanner donated by Bristol-based charity BUST (Breast Cancer Unit Support Trust).
The scanner was officially opened on 9 January by Peaches Golding OBE, Lord-Lieutenant of the County and City of Bristol.
Housed at Cossham Hospital, the state-of-the-art Siemens MAGNETOM Vida 3T MRI scanner will increase capacity for scanning outpatients, prioritising those with breast cancer, prostate cancer and gynaecological cancer. It will also be used for breast cancer imaging research.
Bristol Breast Care Centre is one of the largest in the South West, and the number of MRI scans performed each year has increased to more than 700. This new scanner will increase capacity and will be used for diagnosing breast cancer and monitoring patients undergoing treatment with chemotherapy. Overall, it will shorten the treatment pathway by reducing the current wait times for a scan.
BUST was founded by patients to support the work of the Bristol Breast Care Centre at Southmead Hospital. Run solely by volunteers, over the past 30 years they have enabled the purchase of new technology, such as state-of-the-art scanners.
Video transcript
Hi, I'm Jenny Wookey, and I got involved with BUST over 20 years ago when I had breast cancer.
I was working in the NHS, and it was suggested to me that perhaps I might like to help their charity. And so, I joined and I'm still here. We decided to buy this MRI scanner because the increase of the number of patients into the unit was very obvious and therefore there was a need for a dedicated scanner, MRI scanner for breast patients.
We have been saving for an MRI scanner for just over ten years. And we were, we were at the point of nearly being able to buy the 1.5 Tesla.
And then we were so fortunate, so fortunate last year to have been given a huge donation which allowed us to buy the very best scanner going for breast patients, which is the Tesla 3.
When I first saw the scanner and it had just the work had just been completed on it and I went in and saw it and I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. I cried; it was lovely.
All these years of work, all the help, the dedication, the donations from so many hundreds of people,
all wrapped up in this wonderful thing. We've been fundraising for over ten years to buy an MRI, and it's been quite incredible.
The support that we have had from patients, from patients’ families, from patients, employers, from golf clubs, from GWR railway who supports us every year, from individuals who remember us in their will, from people who just give us a donation to say thank you, thank you for all the service they get.
I have seen hundreds and hundreds of people over that ten years and they have been incredible. From the small little church groups to the huge company groups, to the really huge donations we've had. They have all been amazing. And we owe them a big, huge thank you.
I'd like to thank all the team of Radiographers who are going to be using these machines, to the benefit of the patients of Bristol and surrounding areas.
Thank you to all of you.
Mr Simon Cawthorn, Retired Breast Surgeon and BUST Trustee, said:
This new MRI scanner has taken more than ten years of tireless fundraising of all kinds – from individual and corporate donations to runs, raffles and cake sales. Breast cancer patients and their families have been especially generous in enabling future patients to benefit from the best possible technology.
Maria Kane, CEO, North Bristol NHS Trust, said:
We are extremely grateful to BUST for this incredible gift, which will benefit everyone who lives within our catchment area, especially people who now or in the future develop breast, prostate, or gynaecological cancers.
The new scanner will also provide additional capacity to allow North Bristol to lead on national breast cancer research. This cutting-edge research, looking at a shortened version of the breast MRI scan, will benefit local women in the earlier diagnosis of breast cancer and it will contribute to a deeper understanding of this technique.
Peaches Golding, Lord Lieutenant of Bristol said:
As someone with personal experience of breast cancer, I’m so pleased to be able to honour BUST’s incredible fundraising efforts in purchasing this scanner and to open it officially. The NHS has looked after me incredibly well. And having a charity like BUST supporting breast cancer patients by going the extra mile really does help by ensuring we have the best possible equipment to enable earlier diagnosis and improve health outcomes.
