CREATIVE Robert Clarkson is building relations with hospital bosses by making a scanner — out of Lego bricks.

Mr Clarkson, aged 57, has created a model MRI scanner for Royal Bolton Hospital's children's ward so that the youngsters can play with the toy before experiencing the real thing.

Consisting of 208 bricks, the model was recreated brick by brick. It features a patient lying down waiting to go into the scanner and a nurse stood next to them, and in a separate room a doctor is sitting down working the scanner.

Mr Clarkson, from Breightmet, is part of a charity called Fairy Blocks which donates Lego sets to hospitals around the country and handed the model over to play co-ordinators at the hospital's children's ward.

He said: "I was asked by the hospital to make a toy MRI scanner. It's quite small but it's so the children can play with it so that when they come to have their scan they're not worried about the real thing.

"I've kept the colour scheme white so it looks like the clinical walls in a hospital so they familiarise themselves with what the room will look like.

"I use standard bricks that are available — I don't customise them. You'll be surprised at just how many different shapes and sizes you can get from the Lego store."

The retired mental health nurse says that he always loved playing with the coloured building blocks as a child but it was not until his wife, Sandra, bought him a toy helicopter in 1993 that his love was rekindled.

He said: "I know Lego is seen as being a child's toy but adults love it too. There's just something special about it that makes it enjoyable for all ages."

Play co-ordinator Lydia Hill said: "The Lego MRI scanner is a great resource for us to use with the children so that we can prepare them for their scan and we are very grateful for the donation. If the children have a better idea of what to expect then they will be less afraid and I am sure they will find the Lego model fascinating."

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner is a device to take detailed pictures of organs and other structures inside your body.