THE Lotto has come to the rescue of stroke and cancer patients in the Tunbridge Wells area with a £700,000 grant to Pembury Hospital to fund a new MRI scanner.

There was concern when the hospital was forced to withdraw its existing outdated MRI scanner from service in May. Since then, patients have had to travel to Maidstone Hospital where a temporary mobile MRI scanner was installed.

But the New Opportunities Fund has announced that it is to buy the hospital a new scanner - estimated at about £700,000.

Stephen Collinson, the chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, said: "We have coped well since the scanner was taken out of Pembury, but this grant really gives us the opportunity to look forward and move on.

"The grant will ensure that patients can have their scans performed at Pembury instead of having to travel to Maidstone."