A DIDSBURY scientist received a heartfelt thank you from an eight-year-old cancer patient.

Professor Vaskar Saha, from the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research in Withington, launched an awareness campaign with Declan Tattersall, a youngster diagnosed with a tumour on his spine when he was just 18-months-old.

The pair kicked-off Cancer Research UK’s ‘Behind Every Success Story’ campaign highlighting the impact the charity’s work has on the lives of people with cancer.

Professor Saha, who is head of the Cancer Research UK Children’s Cancer Group, is helping to pioneer better treatments for childhood cancer.

He received a warm thank you from the Lancashire youngster, who after years of treatment by Professor Saha’s team is now fighting fit.

Declan’s face is being shown on the 59ft Manchester Tower screen, near to Piccadilly Station, as part of the campaign.

A poster, which will appear at the Didsbury Cancer Research shop on Wilmslow Road, features Declan’s upper body contrasting with the lower body of a scientist hard at work in a laboratory. It will also be shown in hundreds of other locations throughout the region.

Professor Saha said: "Research funded by Cancer Research UK has contributed significantly to improvements in survival rates for the disease.Improvements in treatment for children with cancer have been impressive – whereas fewer than three out of ten children with cancer survived the disease in the 1960s, that figure is now more than seven out of ten."