CHANNEL swimmer Roger Allsopp has welcomed news that a cancer research breakthrough has been made thanks to his fund-raising efforts. Money raised by islanders was used for research at the University of Southampton to find ways to test blood for signs of breast cancer well before symptoms arose.

The work began after the retired surgeon inspired islanders to sponsor his swim across the English Channel last year.

He is the second-oldest person ever to have completed the challenge.

Hope for Guernsey chairman Mr Allsopp spoke yesterday from Croatia about the ‘bio-markers’ that indicate breast cancer found in samples collected from women in Guernsey between 1964 and 1990.

‘It is nice to know that our efforts have made a tangible difference in this extremely important research,’ he said.

‘It is the samples from Guernsey that have provided the resources for this invaluable work.’

Mr Allsopp has been involved in the project for more than 30 years and conceived the idea with human geneticist Paul Townsend.

The research has allowed scientists to look at samples from 30,000 healthy Guernsey women, along with 1,000 who have since been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Mr Allsopp said the latest findings represented real steps towards finding a blood test that would differentiate cancer sufferers from non-cancer sufferers before symptoms arose.

‘If you can do that, it may be you can detect changes in the blood before a patient shows clinical signs of the cancer itself. The earlier the cancer is diagnosed, the better,’ he said.

Work will now continue to look at more of the samples and it is possible the research could also help to identify infections and conditions such as asthma.