The breast unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital has received a donation of £84,710 to fund a breast biopsy machine called the Brevera System.

The money was donated by Brook Hospital Cancer Care Fund, which has been raising money for QEH for 31 years.

As well as funding the machine, the money will cover maintenance and running costs over the next five years.

The state-of-the-art Brevera System allows clinicians to perform breast biopsies in just three steps as opposed to the usual eight steps.

The machine takes a sample of tissue and creates an x-ray image at the same time -while the patient is awake.

This will speed-up the diagnostic process and means that patients don’t have to wait so long to find out whether they have cancer.

Surinder Matharu, consultant mammographer at QEH, said: “We cannot thank Betty, Jean and Mary from the Brook Hospital Cancer Care Fund enough for this donation.

"Breast referrals have increased over the years, which means that the biopsy rate has too. This new machine will help us work more efficiently and patients won’t have to wait so long for their results.”

Members of the Brook Hospital Cancer Care fund charity have been doing voluntary work at QEH for many years, and the charity has donated money to many important causes.

In January 2014 it donated £77,500 towards a specialist X-ray machine for the breast unit, known as a Faxitron.

Betty Rabbit from Brook Hospital Cancer Care fund said: “This is an important cause to us as QEH is our local hospital and we want to help.

"These kinds of donations would not be possible without the generous contributions we receive from the local community, friends and staff who work at the hospital."