You splendid, wacky people!

Heads were shaved, chests waxed and a number of men revealed all in Full Monty strips in a phenomenal response from T&A readers who came up with all sorts of weird and wacky ideas to raise cash.

People with pots on broken arms and legs charged to have them signed while spelling and maths all improved in schools where pupils were inspired to take part in sponsorship for the campaign.

Many more readers simply dipped into their pockets and purses or sent in cheques for the appeal with many people knowing someone in their family, a friend, work colleague or a neighbour who needed or would benefit from the unique technology offered by MRI.

Patients lucky enough to have had an MRI scan spoke of the benefits it had brought them, sometimes after many months or even years of suffering as doctors finally diagnosed their conditions.

Their sometimes heart-rending stories reached into homes across the district as a community-wide money-raising effort which knew no boundaries took off.

Their efforts supporting the biggest ever appeal by the T&A have been saluted by hospital chiefs who are set to install a permanent record marking their achievements in the scanner suite at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Brave Liam Duffy, ten, of Low Moor, led fundraising efforts which coined nearly £6,000 for the appeal as relatives, including dad Mick, and family friends shaved their heads for the appeal.

He was undergoing a programme of radiotherapy to target a brain tumour revealed by an MRI scan which meant he lost his hair and a dozen-strong group joined him in a mass head-shave.

His mum Carol today said she was delighted the MRI appeal had reached the magic million, enabling Liam to have an MRI scan as part of a check-up in Bradford for the first time later this year.

"It will be brilliant, a lot easier to have them done in Bradford," she said. "It will put our minds at rest really and hopefully that will be the last one.

"The head-shaving helped take his mind off things as well as fundraising and to see him come out of himself at such a time was marvellous."

Another battler inspired to raise cash for the T&A-backed appeal was RAF aircraft technician Richard Rawnsley who walked coast-to-coast across the North of England.

His effort was all the more remarkable since at one stage he was given just 18 months to live until an MRI scan showed he had a one-in-a-million heart defect.

Surgeons carried out pioneering surgery and he began a long rehabilitation programme culminating in the walk which proved to RAF doctors he could return to full duties.

Other people took strength in fundraising for the appeal from tragedy.

Family and friends of brilliant Bradford student Simon Wooller, who died in August from cancer, have raised thousands of pounds for the appeal with donations in his memory from as far afield as the United States.

Phillip Handley had his head shaved to join his mum Carol Watts, of Denholme, who was undergoing chemotherapy for cancer which later claimed her life.

Stephanie Naylor, of Allerton, asked her musician son Stephen Baldwin to perform with his band for the appeal after deciding to raise money for the scanner which she hoped would detect cancer earlier. She died from the illness in November.

More money was raised by regulars at the Sun Inn in Cottingley in memory of motorcyclist Gary Smith who was killed in a road accident in June. Cash was donated in sponsorship from a wheelbarrow race he founded two years earlier.

Top individual fundraiser was probably Michelle King, a hospital volunteer, who single-handedly collected a massive £6,000.

Dozens of people took part in parachute jumps while climber Steve Womersley, of Liversedge, climbed a 20,000 peak in Nepal to scale new heights for the campaign.

l Patients will get immediate benefits from MRI technology once it is up and running in the spring.

Nearly 2,000 people are expected to be scanned in the first year in what is being hailed as a quantum leap in technology giving specialists a window on the body to diagnose a range of disorders.

More than 2,500 patients are due to be scanned each year to diagnose cancerous tumours, neurological disorders including multiple sclerosis and epilepsy as well as bone and joint injuries.

Heart patients and people with circulatory disorders which can lead to a number of complications including strokes will also benefit with special hi-tech attachments on the cutting-edge of MRI advancements.

Doctors estimate that within five years everyone reading this will have had a scan or had a close family member who has had one.

Lives will be saved and many more will have disorders diagnosed more quickly and without time-consuming, costly, risky and painful surgery and tests.

Work began on Monday to build the scanner suite at Bradford Royal Infirmary with a specially-reinforced steel floor within a copper cage to prevent powerful radio signals entering or leaving.

A magnet 30,000 times more powerful than the Earth's magnetic field will be lifted into place by a crane in April. Two senior radiographers will visit the manufacturers in Milwaukee in the United States to be given a detailed briefing.

Doctors hope the first patients will be scanned in May.

Head of radiology at the infirmary, Dr Roger Lowe, said he and his team could not wait to begin work on the most advanced equipment of its type in the country, putting Bradford on a par with other hospitals in the region.

"We can't wait to show what we can do," he said. "This is not a replacement and although we have staff who have experience of this type of technology there will be a steep learning curve.

"Images of the highest quality are the crucial thing and with this machine we have the software to allow us to image moving structures like the heart as well as blood vessels.

"This will enable us to do cardiac and vascular imaging but I would expect a big part of the work will cover the brain, spine and joints although obviously we are well positioned to develop work in future. It will be second to none."

Big and small, every penny counted

There were coffee mornings and fun days; glittering dinners and balls - fund raisers have done anything that brought in the cash.

The biggest money-spinner was a fantastic night of fashion and fun at Bradford Grammar School which raised £27,000, doubled up to £54,000 when it was matched pound for pound by Sovereign Health Care.

Diners admired fashions for this spring and summer by London-based designer Roland Klein who unveiled them straight from the catwalks of the capital.

£25,000 was raised in a glittering May ball at the Cedar Court Hotel and another ball organised by the Shah Jehan restaurant raised £10,000.

Hospital staff raised tens of thousands of pounds with events including a cycle ride across the North and an It's A Knockout-style event.

Royal Mail postmen bared all to do the Full Monty as part of regular events by local postal staff while Bradford Bulls lent big backing to many organisations.

Smaller-scale events were the lifeblood of the appeal without which it could never have been so successful.

Hundreds of pounds raised here and there by community groups, pubs and clubs, sports organisations and schools and businesses played a key part in generating cash and support for the appeal.

Regulars at the Chapel House pub in Low Moor were among the first to join the fun collecting an impressive £6,000. Among their events were a golf day at Clayton Golf Club and a treasure hunt, raffles and auctions with gifts donated by local businesses were regularly held, a parachute jump involving 14 regulars including Ian Anderson, of Wyke, who in the end had a special reason to take part.

Only three days before, his son James had an MRI scan in Leeds which revealed he had a brain tumour. Emergency surgery was carried out and now James, 20, is on the road to recovery.

His dad said he still needed speech therapy but his hearing and sight had come on great strides and he was likely to be one of the first to have an MRI scan at BRI when his next check-up was due in May.

You're just scan-tastic!

T&A Opinion

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.