The world's most advanced MRI scanner has arrived in Bradford.

A painstaking operation took place at Bradford Royal Infirmary yesterday to crane a huge seven-ton magnet into place in another milestone in the Telegraph & Argus-backed £1 million Bradford Millennium Scanner Appeal.

The magnet - the central part of the machine - arrived after a journey by air and road from Chicago along with hi-tech computer equipment.

The magnet was strapped to a 40-metre high crane and gently, inch by inch, lowered on to a platform through a hole in the wall of the specially-constructed scanner suite.

Workmen took several hours to manoeuvre the magnet into place on a reinforced concrete floor.

Now the magnet - with a magnetic field 30,000 times more powerful than the Earth's magnet field - will be powered up and a bank of computers will be linked up.

Testing of the equipment is expected to take several weeks but the first pictures from the machine are expected next month.

The first patients to be scanned using its unique technology will get appointments at the beginning of June which will be the culmination of the appeal for which so many Bradford people worked so hard.

Trevor Constantine, guide team leader from the Friends of BRI who watched the operation, said: "I am very pleased when you think we have done it in about 18 months - it's not bad going to get a million pounds.

"It's a real achievement. We have seen all sorts of crazy things done to raise money and the T&A has done a great job on it."

It was also an important day for superintendent radiographer Stephen Gibbs who will now get to work getting it up and running.

Limited routine MRI scanning carried out in Leeds and Halifax for some patients has now been ended and every day he has seen the waiting list for patients in need of scans using MRI technology grow longer.

He said the real celebrations would be when the first patient was scanned.

"It's coming together. It's a bit of a relief. There have not been problems but you get so far and you always think something else will hold you up. So we were glad it's arrived"

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