CANCER research has been given a vital boost with an early Christmas gift.

New equipment has been delivered to the Northern Institute for Cancer Research, in Newcastle, courtesy of The Katie Trust, with an aim to find a cure.

The charity, based in Marske, east Cleveland, has supported the research since it was formed six years ago in memory of Redcar schoolgirl Katie Neal.

The six-year-old died after a long and brave battle against a brain tumour.

Now the research project has been given a big boost after the trust handed over equipment that will enable laboratory analysis to be carried out much more quickly.

The tissue microarray equipment was bought by the trust at a cost of more that £7,000 and is already being used in the Paul O'Gorman Building, in Newcastle, where the Northern Institute for Cancer Research is located.

It is aimed at helping research staff find out more about how certain medulloblastoma tumours react and therefore aid their attempts to ultimately develop a cure.

The charity has also provided three PhD students to work at the centre on research into medulloblastoma tumours, a type of cancer which affects the brain and central nervous system in children, and which claimed the life of Katie.

"The big advantage with this approach is that you can screen hundreds of tumours for a tumour behaviour marker with relatively little effort and cost," said Dr David Ellison, who, along with Dr Steve Clifford, heads up the research project. "It is an efficient way of finding out quickly about the relevance of a particular marker to a tumour."

Katie Trust chairman Martin Neal said: "We have seen some very real progress since we became involved six years ago and we look forward to seeing that momentum grow even stronger."