An appeal to buy a scanner that detects brittle bone disease has smashed through the £60,000 barrier thanks to readers of the Dumfries and Galloway Standard.

It’s taken them two years but the good news is that their local area can now have the modern technology to fight osteoporosis.

It affects one in three women and one in 12 men nationally and can be treated if it is detected early enough, which is why the scanner is so important.

Locals from the Dumfries and Galloway region have had to travel across the border and then across Cumbria to Whitehaven to have the all-important bone density measuring scan.

But the paper told its readers: “It is all set to change now that we have raised enough cash to install our own state-of-the art equipment in a room ready and waiting within the X-ray department at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary.

“We are giving our medical experts a fighting chance to make accurate diagnoses and provide crucial treatment so that people need not suffer unwittingly.”

To make sure there is enough cash for the installation charges and any computer software, the fund will be kept open a little longer.

The Standard’s DEXA Appeal has so far raised £62,600. The total was reached through donations, sponsorship and fund-raising events by readers.

Do you have a story for us?
Ring the HoldTheFrontPage newsdesk on
01332 291111 x6022, or to e-mail us now – click here