PHILANTHROPIST Clive Richards and his wife Sylvia have pledged £250,000 towards a state-of-the-art hospital scanner.

The Herefordshire couple's money will support charity Cobalt and its involvement in a research project at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB).

Working with the hospital and Siemens Healthineers, the charity has invested £2m for a new MRI research facility at the Institute of Translational Medicine (ITM).

The ITM Imaging Centre is likely to be launched in January and will house the latest diagnostic technology, a 3.0 Tesla MRI scanner, provided with money from Mr Richards.

Mr Richards said: "We need to understand more about how to diagnose disease. This MRI scanner will provide a vital tool for clinicians and researchers at one of the leading research centres.

"I have been a terribly lucky boy in my life and made a few bob. It’s nice to be able to give something back.”

Cobalt is a medical charity helping people affected by cancer, dementia and other conditions through diagnostic imaging.

The new imaging centre will enable a broad range of research for many specialties on the QEHB site; including oncology, neurology, cardiac and liver, utilising the very latest technology and evaluating techniques not currently commercially available. This new service will be delivered by both Cobalt and QEHB staff.

Mr and Mrs Richards live on their farm in Ullingswick and have donated than £10m over the last 10 years to Herefordshire projects. Mr Richards made his fortune in the stock market.

The couple has been long term supporters of Cobalt and helped the charity to raise funds which provided Hereford County Hospital with a digital mammography unit in 2013.

Each year the charity provides diagnostic imaging for more than 50,000 patients at its Cobalt Imaging Centre in Cheltenham and with its mobile MRI scanners that travel throughout Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and beyond.