Preston’s Asian community raised an amazing £38,000 for their local hospital in a matter of weeks.

The money will help the Rosemere Cancer Foundation buy outright new life-saving equipment for the Royal Preston Hospital.

In just over six weeks, eight city mosques raised £38,340.86, which included £5,000 donated by madrassah children and £8,000 from women in the community.

The money was collected at Masjid-e-Falah, Jamea Masjid, Quwwat Islam, Masjid Shuhada Deepdale, Masjid-E-Saliheen, Masjid e Salaam, Madina Masjid and Masjid-e-Quba.

This month members of the Preston Muslim Society handed over the money to the charity, which is using it as the final instalment for a £100,000 bill for the very latest technology in lung cancer diagnosis.

At the end of October, the Royal Preston Hospital became the first hospital in the country, private or NHS, to take delivery of the most advanced diagnostic equipment that combines ultrasound and endoscopy technologies. It enables doctors to spot the disease in its earliest stages - early enough to potentially cure it. The equipment’s British debut in Preston was due, in no small part, to the hospital’s consultant chest physician Dr Mohammed Munavvar.

Iqbal Adam from the society told Asian Image: “We are part of the community and we felt it was important for mosques to take a lead in this.

“The Imams played a very huge part in the fundraising effort by announcing the appeal at Friday prayers. We would like to thank everyone who donated."

Representatives from each mosque were invited to the Royal Preston Hospital to meet Dr Munavvar and present their cheque to him, Karen Partington, chief executive of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust, and Dennis Benson, chairman of Rosemere Cancer Foundation, below.

Rosemere fundraising coordinator Paula Richardson said: “We are humbled by the amazing generosity of Preston’s Muslim community.

“Its donation will make a huge difference to the lives of cancer patients across the region, who may be facing a lung cancer diagnosis.”

Rosemere Cancer Foundation fundraises to bring world class cancer care to local patients throughout Lancashire and South Cumbria in their local hospital.

It spends the donations it receives on vital equipment, research and training, which the NHS is unable to fund. It also pays for patient welfare projects, including providing free access to complementary therapies for those going through treatment, and working to make the surroundings in which treatment is given more patient friendly.