Cancer patient Frank Isherwood was one of the first people from the Bradford district to be scanned using MRI technology which has helped doctors find tumours for his very rare form of the illness.

Mr Isherwood, 36, of Crosshills, near Keighley, first had a benign tumour removed from his adrenal gland when he was in his late teens.

Nearly a decade later he was one of the first people from the Bradford area to have an MRI scan at St James's Hospital in Leeds when the cancer, an extremely rare blood vessel tumour, was found to have moved to his liver.

Specialists using the scans decided he was not suitable to have a liver transplant and he was given chemotherapy for four years to treat the unusual slow-growing tumours.

He was referred back to the hospital in 1994 and more MRI scans were carried out, along with a battery of other tests, prompting surgeons to carry out the transplant this time.

But his problems with the illness were still not over and only this spring MRI technology was again used to pinpoint a tumour the size of a pea growing in his stomach. It was removed in May and he was given the all-clear a fortnight ago.

He is one of only about a dozen people a year from Ward 15 at Bradford Royal Infirmary currently able to get access to scanner technology at neighbouring hospitals. Specialists expect the number of cancer patients to at least quadruple if a scanner was available on site. A further £181,000 needs to be raised in the final countdown of the Bradford Millennium Scanner Appeal.

Mr Isherwood, a farm worker and dry-stone waller, said he was very grateful for the technology which had significantly helped doctors treating him.

It had given them a clearer idea of the extent of tumours in his liver and helped pinpoint the tumour in his stomach which had not been spotted using CT scans.

"The MRI is a lot clearer and you can see things in more detail," he said.

"The CT didn't pick up the new tumour but the MRI did so the surgeon could see how big it was, what he should remove and what he shouldn't.

"It is a very rare form of cancer but that doesn't make it any better having it.

"They don't know why it occurred in the first place or why it re-occurs but I think I am very fortunate to be near such good hospitals."

Dr Denis Parker, consultant oncologist at Bradford Royal Infirmary, said the type of cancer suffered by Mr Isherwood was the only one he expected to see in his career and it was stunning how he had coped.

The MRI scanner had played an important role in enabling doctors to give the green light to the liver transplant, in particular showing the amount of blood supply to the organ.

He said a scanner on-site would improve care of cancer patients. In particular MRI technology could spot spinal cord compression in the earlt stages. It caused irreversible paralysis in the legs unless it was stopped.

Another major advantage of MRI scanning was it did not leave patients open to risks from radiation.

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