Mosques from across Lancashire have made a generous donation towards a digital CT scanner based at Royal Preston Hospital.

The scanner which is used to perform digital post-mortems was officially opened in May 2018 and is the first of its kind in the North West – as well as being one of only a small few throughout the rest of the UK.

The service provided by Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and iGene, is free at the point of delivery for bereaved families from across the whole of Lancashire and South Cumbria. No facility in Lancashire has previously been able to provide a digital autopsy service.

Families who request a digital autopsy previously had to fund the investigation themselves and arrange transport out of the county.

Recognising the benefit that the new scanner has brought to people across the county, the Preston Muslim Society coordinated a fundraising effort as an appreciation for the service, raising a fantastic £33,430.

Karen Partington, Chief Executive said: “We are truly grateful for this donation from the Preston Muslim Society.

"It is so humbling to know that the Muslim community has raised such a huge amount of money like this as an appreciation for the service. We owe everyone who contributed towards the donation a huge thank you.”

“We are really proud to be able to provide this fantastic service for people across Lancashire and South Cumbria and knowing how much it is appreciated by the way of such donations, inspires us to continue working hard and delivering high quality services like this.”

Asian Image:

A traditional post-mortem is performed by a pathologist who has to open the body and remove the organs to carry out the examination.

Developments in CT scanning and research now allow a digital post-mortem to be performed without the need for the traditional invasive procedure - unless further investigation is required to clarify the cause of death.

This method also preserves the dignity of the deceased person and is of particular importance for deaths where the deceased person is of certain faiths.

Such is the capability of the digital CT scanner that a cause of death is identified in around 97% of all the autopsies carried out in this way.

The less-invasive process can also help to reduce the time required to establish a cause of death.

In the around 3% of cases where further analysis may be required after a digital autopsy, more precise and less invasive investigations are able to be performed to establish the cause of death due to the work already covered by the scan.

All of this together often benefits people who require an expedited release of the deceased person.

The donated funds will be used to help contribute towards the general running costs of the service.