A BLACK tie bash has helped provide equipment for a Southampton laboratory which carries out vital cancer research.

The £15,000 boost from the Dave Wellman Cancer Trust will pay for new freezers for the lab named in his memory at Southampton General Hospital's cancer sciences building.

Trust patron and former Saints footballer Francis Benali, pictured above left, handed over the donation to cancer specialist Professor Peter Johnson and his team, with help from the organisation's founder Tina Wellman-Hawke.

The cheque represented the proceeds of the trust's ball last September, with a further £8,000 due to be presented to the Wessex Cancer Trust and Countess Mountbatten House in the near future.

Tina, who set up the trust after her husband Dave, inset, died of cancer in August 1999, said: "This money has enabled the purchase of valuable freezers that hold very important biopsies."

In total, the Dave Wellman Cancer Trust has raised nearly £50,000 for Professor Johnson and his team.