A COSTLY new scanner will take the fight against breast cancer into the community next week.

Bolton's first £100,000-plus mobile mammography unit will play an important part in early detection of breast cancer -- which kills around 16,000 nationally each year.

For the next five months, the 35-ft long unit will be parked behind the town's Diabetic Centre on Chorley Street, just a stone's throw from the old Royal Infirmary.

The unit's proximity to the town centre means that local women from the north side of Bolton can more easily take part in the screening programme.

And, for the first time, women aged between 65 and 70 will be screened, along with those aged 50 to 64. The Government wants all screening programmes to include this older age group before the end of 2004, but Bolton is achieving the target two years early.

"The mobile unit is a great addition to the established screening unit at the Royal Bolton Hospital," said Christine Hopkins, superintendent radiographer for the Bolton, Bury and Rochdale screening service. She, deputy Jeanette Griggs and their fellow radiography staff are excited about the new unit because they know it is both more convenient and more accessible for many local women.

"The new mobile unit is also a very non-hospital environment," said senior radiographer Christine Crook. Although the unit is well-equipped, it is also bright and comfortable with plush, softly coloured fittings adding to the air of informality.

It will be parked in central spots for a couple of months at a time, and its next port of call is the Asda car park in Rochdale.

Invitations to both the mobile unit and the Royal Bolton Hospital's screening unit are by invitation only, via a rolling programme run through local GPs' surgeries.

The new mobile unit will be sending out invitations to see 60 women a day, although not all women invited will attend.

Last year, the town's breast screening unit detected cancerous or pre-cancerous cells at a very early stage in more than 110 local women.

Christine Hopkins and her colleagues hope the new unit will help them to save even more women's lives -- and cut the town's frightening death toll.