RADCLIFFE Mayor Councillor Fred Holt had nothing to hide from the electorate when he was X-rayed at a health campaigns opening ceremony.

The dignitary was the first person in the town to be photographed by the Manchester Regional Hospital Board's Mobile Mass Radiography Unit in January 1955.

The unit was to give people in Radcliffe the chance of a free check-up, primarily aimed at detecting tuberculosis at its earliest and most treatable stages.

It was estimated that two in every thousand people in the town would be revealed to have the disease, with up to 9,000 expected to be seen.

For most of its ten-week stay in the town, the truck-based unit was to be sited at the Congregational School.

However, it was portable and was also used to visit some of the towns larger workplaces.

No effort had been spared to ensure that the examination caused as little incovenience as possible, because it was no longer necessary to undress.

The unit was able to deal with up to 120 people each hour and the results were given to them within a couple of days.

The patient would be confronted with a cone-shaped X-ray camera, which would hum softly as the image was taken.

The mayor said that the campaign was both a subject and object that he could completely embrace.