A BRISTOL doctor has welcomed the support of a group of volunteers who have pledged to raise £2 million for a machine to treat thousands of people with cancer.

The Friends of Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre has pledged to raise the money to buy the state-of-the-art radiotherapy machine which will treat dozens of patients a day.

As revealed in the Evening Post their pledge brings the finances for a proposed expansion of the city centre hospital into place.

It was reported in August that a £13.5 million extension has been proposed for the city centre cancer hospital to make way for a dedicated teenage cancer unit and to make space for the adult bone marrow transplant service to move from Bristol Children's Hospital.

Consultant clinical oncologist Matthew Beasley told the Post that the linac machine the charity organisation has agreed to raise money for is more accurate than the current radiotherapy machine, which is coming to the end of its expected lifespan, and will reduce the time of treatments.

It is hoped that the oncology centre will be the first in the South West with the new machine and it will help further the hospital's aspirations to be a world leader in the treatment of people with cancer.

About 30 to 40 patients have radiotherapy in each of the six linac machines at the hospital every day.

A treatment that currently takes about ten minutes with the older machines could be reduced to as little as two minutes with the new.

Dr Beasley said that the new machine will be able to better target the area of the body affected by cancer and less likely to harm other tissue or organs, while also accounting for the way that parts of the body move.

A CT scanner in the machine will be able to improve the precision and account for breathing and the movement of the bowels and other organs to ensure the radiation is delivered accurately during each treatment.

"The more targeted we can be the less normal tissue we have to treat," he said.

"Another advantage is the speed of the new machine. The machine we have now gives radiation in one direction and stops then moves round but this will move in a smooth arc and will continue delivering and we will treat a patient having a typical treatment now in eight to ten minutes in as little as two minutes.

"That is good for us because we can treat more people and it is good for patients because sometimes when we keep a patient still for radiotherapy we have to use a special mask for them and that is not very comfortable."

Dr Beasley said that more than half of cancer patients have radiotherapy as part of their treatment and that the use of radiation to kill cancer cells is involved in four out of ten cures for the disease.

"Radiotherapy is used to cure more people and improves people's quality of life with palliative treatment in both adults and children," he said.

"It is used in every group of cancer and every type of cancer so any patient with cancer could benefit from this machine."

Friends of Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre have raised millions of pounds in the last 18 years or so, including the funding of an open scanner at the hospital.

Chairman John Miles said: "We did it with the open scanner – we did that without any grants. It was the people of Bristol and the South West that ran concerts, coffee mornings and quizzes.

"It is the whole public helping out and we want everyone to help us raise the £2 million as quickly as possible."

University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, said the £2 million the Friends are looking to raise will be an "invaluable contribution towards the redevelopment". It will be added to funds pledged by national charity the Teenage Cancer Trust and city centre hospitals charity Above and Beyond for the multi-million-pound plans.

● To support the Friends of Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre in their appeal to fund the new machine call 0117 342 3432, visit www.friends bhoc.org.uk or donate at justgiving. com/fbhoc.