VITAL cancer research at University of York has received a big boost thanks to a major cash donation to buy a sophisticated “cell-busting” instrument.

The £10,000 donation, from the Rotary Club of York Vikings, is one of the organisation’s largest to an individual cause and means scientists in York will no longer have to make the 145 mile round trip to Newcastle to use a device, known as a bioruptor sonicator.

Professor Norman Maitland, director of the Yorkshire Cancer Research (YCR) research unit, said: “This will make a huge difference to our day to day work and research goals.

“Simply put, this new machine enables us to open up a cell and allow its different contents, such as DNA and proteins, to be purified and extracted efficiently.

“Everyone in the York lab is incredibly grateful to The Rotary Club of York Vikings for making such a generous donation.”

The instrument is essential to the team’s work into finding cures for prostate cancer and developing drugs specifically targeted at halting the effects of prostate cancer stem cells. The research at York is sponsored by YCR, which said they were able to get purchase the instrument outright thanks to the cash.

York Vikings president Andrew Rogerson said: “Professor Maitland came to our meeting and did a talk for us, and many of our members were impressed to hear about his work into prostate cancer having suffered with the disease themselves.

“This is quite possibly the biggest donation we have made to a single charity in recent years but we feel the money is providing a piece of equipment that is absolutely essential to the ground-breaking work of the York lab.”

Sally Crerar, head of Community Fundraising at YCR, said: “One-off donations like this are always wonderful to receive and we’re incredibly grateful to the York Vikings for raising such a large amount on our behalf.

“As has been demonstrated, capital donations such as this make the lives of our cancer specialists so much easier and allow us to buy the specialist equipment they need to carry out their work more effectively.”