FORMER BBC chief news correspondent Kate Adie has congratulated everyone on their fantastic fundraising work to provide Yeovil District Hospital with a second CT scanner.

The state-of-the-art machine was officially opened by Ms Adie who said she was a fan of “modern hospitals” and was glad to be welcomed with open arms.

Ms Adie said she had visited hospitals in Sarajevo, Libya, India and Africa to report on “ghastly things.”

“They didn’t often like us going into their hospitals,” she said.

One anecdote she gave at the opening was on a trip to Albania where she went to a hospital and found a patient with a drip made out of a “Coca-Cola bottle and held up with string.”

“So I’m a huge fan of advances in medical equipment and it is fantastic that people have raised all this money for this new CT scanner,” she said. “Well done everyone.”

Patients, support groups and the wider community help to raise somewhere in the region of £150,000 in just six months.

“The NHS, God bless it, isn’t always flush with money so this fundraising is terrific,” said Ms Adie who then later described the CT scanner as looking like a “giant polo mint”.

The CT scanner will be in constant use by mainly stroke, cancer and trauma patients.

The hospital would like to particularly thank the Friends of Yeovil Hospital, Friends of South Petherton Hopital and the Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund for their amazing support.

Also among those at the opening were Andrea Scott and Alison Garnett, of the Nutty Knitters group, who helped to raise £8,000.