A £25,000 “gift” has enabled a centre for people affected by cancer to buy an “important piece of equipment”.

The Paul Strickland Scanner Centre at Mount Vernon Hospital celebrated being able to buy a PET dispensing pot after a “generous” grant from the Pranic Healing Charity UK.

The new gear, used in Positron Emission Tomography (PET-CT) scanning, uses a small amount of radioactive tracer fluid injected into the vein that provides information about a patient’s internal organs.

The scan tells doctors about the presence, location and severity of cancers, as well as helping to identify other conditions.

Vicki Major, research lead at Paul Strickland Scanner Centre, said: “The dispensing pot allows staff to quickly and safely dispense the volume of tracer needed for a typical PET-CT scan, allowing us to scan more patients than otherwise.

“We’re hugely grateful to the Pranic Healing Charity UK for their generous gift of £25,000, part of which has allowed us to invest in this valuable equipment.”