GOING to hospital can be a scary experience.

But volunteer knitters hoped to inject some hilarity into the horror.

The craft-mad knitters were haunting Great Western Hospital’s front entrance last week, selling Halloween woollens in aid of Brighter Futures.

Plump knitted pumpkins, baby hats and tiny woolly Christmas puddings were all on sale.

Over two days the knitters made £532.73 for the Brighter Futures’ radiotherapy appeal.

Fundraisers at the hospital need to raise £2.9million to kit out a brand new planned radiotherapy centre. The unit will prevent cancer patients from Swindon having to make the 70-mile round trip to Oxford’s Churchill Hospital for treatment.

Brighter Futures’ Lisa Utting said: “We just get overwhelmed when people support us in this way.

“Knitting now appeals to all generations. It’s not just an old person’s game anymore.”

Brighter Futures is lucky to have an “army” of knitters. Their woollen chicks brought in £3,500 for the charity’s appeal this Easter.

Julie Zerebecki, 57, of West Swindon, began knitting for the hospital around three years ago.

In the run up to Halloween and Christmas, she’s been knitting orange pumpkins and little Christmas puddings – each hiding a Chocolate orange or Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Julie pays for the materials – including the sweets – herself.

“Some people think I’m mad, but I just love doing it,” Julie said.

The West Swindon woman lost her husband, Dave, to lung cancer – and Brighter Futures is a cause close to her heart. She said: “He was a hard working man. He was diagnosed in February and he died in June. It was really quite fast.”

The knitters’ creations can be bought at Brighter Future’s Christmas fair, Saturday, November 25, at Grange Community Centre, from 10am – 3pm.