Twice as many Bradford patients will now be able to benefit from a life-saving heart scanner after a charity appeal smashed through its target.

The Heartbeat Appeal has raised £150,000 in just 18 months to buy and install a second heart scanner for Bradford Royal Infirmary.

The new scanner will be the most technologically advanced available and will mean the number of patients being scanned will double.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Bradford Royal Infirmary, can now place an order for the equipment and it is hoped the equipment will be up and running by next spring.

The cash was raised through a variety of fund-raising events, including a celebrity golf day and marathon featuring television stars. Delighted appeal chairman Alec Bloom, a former heart patient who set up the charity to provide cardiology equipment across Yorkshire, said: "The new scanner will add an extra dimension to the hospital's services, enabling doctors for the first time to assess critically ill patients in the intensive care unit and the coronary care unit, without compromising the examination of outpatients."

Currently, 2,500 cardiac ultrasound tests are carried out each year using the heart scanner but demand is growing.

Mr Bloom said that, as well as doubling the number of patients who could be seen, it would mean those who were seriously ill would be diagnosed quickly and accurately. "Thanks to the generosity of the community, this is the latest project where the Heartbeat Appeal has been able to fund significant improvements to the facilities and equipment for heart patients. This is particularly important in Bradford, where the death toll from heart disease is higher than average."

The scanner uses sound waves to produce television images of the heart as it beats and it means doctors can see heart valves, strength of muscles and size of the organ's chambers.

It is vital to diagnose valvular heart disease, chest pain and heart murmurs as well as genetic cardiac disorders.

David Jackson, chief executive of the trust, said they had already invested more than £1.25 million into a new chest pain and cardiac catheterisation lab, which speeded up the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. "We want to continue this progress and build upon the investment and development, giving the community the highest quality cardiology service we can."