“THE END is in sight,” fundraisers have said – as Swindon's cancer-fighting fund hit a new landmark.

The Brighter Futures radiotherapy appeal has reached a record-breaking £1.85million, the hospital confirmed today.

It leaves fundraisers at the Great Western Hospital needing to find just £150,000 in three months if they are to hit their £2million Christmas target.

The Swindon hospital hopes to raise a total of £2.9million to help kit out a state-of-the-art radiotherapy unit at the Great Western.

The new unit would change the lives of hundreds of cancer patients a year forced to make a 70-mile round trip to Oxford for life-saving radiotherapy treatment.

Lisa Utting of Brighter Futures said: “I think it’s just unbelievable. I’ve been on this appeal since the start and to get to this point – it feels like the end is in sight.

“Although it’s taken us just over two years to get to this point, most of our funding has come from the community.”

She extended a “big thank you” to all Brighter Futures' supporters.

Last week, Brighter Futures boss Catherine Newman told the Adver she was confident the radiotherapy appeal would hit £2million by Christmas.

“Over the summer we’ve raised over £300,000,” Catherine said. “When you start to see numbers like that, you start to think we will hit our overall target.

“I would love to go home at Christmas and think, we’re almost there.”

On Friday, Brighter Futures fundraisers will in the Great Western Hospital’s main entrance for Halloween, selling knitted pumpkins – perched, bobble-hat like, on Terry’s Chocolate Oranges donated by the Dorcan Way Morrisons store.

The pumpkin treats, which will be sold for £3 each, have all been knitted by the hospital’s knitting volunteers.

To donate to Brighter Futures, visit: www.brighterfuturesgwh.nhs.uk.