A SCANNER which will help in the early diagnosis of prostate cancer has been given to the Durham Dales Primary Care Trust.

The £10,000 portable ultrasound machine will be used at a clinic opening in Stanhope in February, where Weardale men aged between 50 and 55 will be offered screening for cancer and other bladder problems.

Sue Fulford, of the Graham Fulford Charitable Trust, which is based in Warwickshire, handed over the scanner at the Escomb Road Annexe, in Bishop Auckland yesterday.

Until then, three care trusts had been sharing just one machine.

Lesley Holliday, continence advisor at the care trust, said: "This will make an enormous difference. It will mean that we can diagnose more cases early and maybe even save lives."

Sue Fulford, who has worked with her husband Graham to buy three other scanners around the country after a family friend was diagnosed with cancer, said: "We need men to realise how important it is to come forward early."