BREAST cancer screening will be quicker and more accurate thanks to cash donated by Bolton people.

A £20,000 mammotome biopsy device will vastly improve the accuracy of cancer checks at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

The Breast Cancer Unit will soon install a digital camera on its mammogram machine speeding up results.

Cash from the hospital's Endowment Fund was used to buy theequipment, pioneered in America.

Instead of conventional needle methods, the team will now be able to get larger tissue samples using the biopsy machine.

Dr Anthony Maxwell, consultant radiologist, said: "It means better accuracy and is great news for the town.

"It allows us to get large tissue samples and improves the chance to get a better diagnosis. Conventional needles are very small and we often have to repeat the procedure."

Some women have been called back to have a repeat biopsy using the new machine.

Patients and local groups help boost the Endowment Fund each year buying equipment for the hospital.

The unit has been waiting for the new device for more than two years.

Dr Maxwell said: "We have been watching its success in America where it has been used widely.

"But our hands were tied because of the money involved. Now we are just getting to grips with it.

"It just goes to show where the money from the fund really goes -- to the benefit of Bolton people."

Dr Maxwell's team is now planning to introduce digital technology into the unit to update and upgrade their mammogram machine.

The digital stereotactic biopsy camera will mean instant pictures, faster results and more women being screened.

Dr Maxwell said: "We are going to buy this machine soon and it is being half funded by the endowment fund.

"This will speed up what has so far been a lengthy process getting film developed which means more women being screened."