$1.5m breast cancer research boost

Breast cancer research has been boosted by a $1.5 million donation to Auckland University.

The Breast Cancer Research Trust presented a cheque for the money to the university's Medical and Health Sciences dean, Professor Iain Martin, at a fund-raising ball attended by singer and breast cancer survivor Olivia Newton-John.

The university will use the money to establish a chair in breast cancer research.

More than 2000 New Zealand women are diagnosed with the disease each year and around 600 die from it.