THE community in Liden has rallied to raise funds for the Brighter Futures Radiotherapy Appeal by having strawberries and cream with neighbours.

With generous donations from a host of companies, the event brought dozens of friends together for the fundraising effort, with raffles and food on sale throughout the day.

Organised by Jeanne Barnett and Anne Slater, the event raised a total of more than £700 for the appeal, which is aiming to gather up £2.9 million to fund the project - to build a radiotherapy centre at Swindon's Great Western Hospital.

Currently, patients must endure a 70-mile round trip to Oxford's Churchill Hospital for radiotherapy treatment often daily, for up to six weeks at a time.

And Jeanne said the decision to help the appeal was an obvious one for her.

"We decided to have a strawberries and cream tea in aid of Brighter Futures, who are trying to raise the money for a radiotherapy unit at Great Western Hospital," she said.

"We managed to raise in total £732.76 for the appeal. We decided to do the whole thing for them because I should think everyone in Swindon would want a radiotherapy unit in their town.

"There were two of us in particular who organised the whole thing, myself and a friend of mine - Anne Slater. We held it at the home of two of our neighbours, Mr and Mrs Frost, because they had a bigger garden than us, which was for the best because we had a great turn out.

"We must have had close to around 50 or 60 people come along, who were mostly friends, neighbours and just people from the community.

"We had a lot of donations from different people to help get it all set up. Morrisons were fantastic, and donated a deli table and all the cream we needed, and a basket of fruit and bouquet of flowers for raffle prizes.

"Lotsmead Farm donated all the strawberries, and there were lots of other places who helped out, too many to mention, but we want to say thank you to all of them.

"We have taken the cheque up to the staff, and because it is being Gift Aided, that will give them a total of around £915 in the end.

"They were absolutely delighted with it. I imagine the event will only be a one-off, because it really was a lot of work."