The specialist cancer centre The Christie is the first hospital in the country to have a boat, which is winning titles at national and European championship level, named after it.

The Checkmate Sailing Team, has renamed their boat 'Christie Cancer Care' for this year's sailing competitions. Over the bank holiday weekend, the boat achieved success by winning the overall trophy in Scotland's most prestigious sailing event - the Brewin Dolphin Scottish Series - on the waters of Loch Fyne. The 12-member boat will race in four more races over July and August.

The team's Skipper Nigel Biggs, a former member of the Scottish 470 Olympic squad in the early 1990s, chose to rename the 35 foot boat after The Christie as a way of publicising the "centre of excellence" which cared for his late father through his own battle with prostate cancer.

42 year old Nigel from Cheshire said; "During his cancer my father received the most fantastic care and this is a small way of saying thank you. The Christie has, quite rightly, a brilliant reputation for its treatment, care and research and we want to help publicise that."

Mr Biggs, a managing director of a Widnes-based building company, added; "We've won lots of races over the years but have never quite managed to get our hands on the overall Scottish Series Trophy, so this new name must have brought us good luck! Our performance was judged the best of the 160-boat regatta, so we're thrilled and proud to have raced for such a worthy cause."

Caroline Shaw, chief Executive of The Christie said;

"We are privileged to have had many things named in support and honour of The Christie over the years, but this is the first time a boat has been named after us. Everyone here is proud to have our name on the boat's winning sails and hope it has brought them luck."

The team have added a blog to their website and will be making daily posts during each event - go to www.checkmatesailing.com

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