A CANCER-fighting radiotherapy appeal has topped the £2m mark.

Brighter Futures fundraisers raised more than £90,000 in just four weeks to hit the massive milestone in time for Christmas.

And Adver readers alone have donated a staggering £26,058 for the campaign since last summer.

The smashed target brings a state-of-the-art new radiotherapy centre one step closer to being realised.

The new unit would end the need for Swindon cancer patients to make the excruciating 70-mile round trip to Oxford’s Churchill Hospital for life-saving treatment.

Brighter Futures – Great Western Hospital’s charity – needs to raise £2.9m to kit out the new radiotherapy unit.

The cash will help pay for two new linear accelerators, the hi-tech radiotherapy kit that burns out cancerous tumours.

It has taken the team more than two years to reach this point.

Catherine Newman, head of fundraising at Brighter Futures, said: “It’s an incredible feeling to hit the £2m mark for Christmas. We’re over the moon. We can’t believe we’ve hit it.

“It felt like a challenge to get to it, but we knew the town would get behind us.

“Our supporters are simply amazing. The local community have backed the campaign in their thousands and in such extraordinary ways

“They have taken on challenges like the Ride for Radiotherapy, Superhero Run, London Marathon and the Swindon Half Marathon for the appeal with hundreds more organising fundraising activities locally.

“We’d like to say a massive thank you to each and every person who has helped the appeal reach this milestone.

“The local community have really banded together and got behind us. We’ve had so many people coming into the office with their collections. They’ve all heard about the story in the paper.

“We are on the home stretch now – our fundraising target is within touching distance and we’ll be working harder than ever to reach it in the coming year.”

Work on the new radiotherapy building is expected to start next year, with the service delivered by staff from the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Currently, 700 patients make the 70-mile round trip to Oxford every year for the treatment.

A course of treatment lasts up to seven weeks and can leave patients in so much pain they have to spend the journey to Oxford lying on the taxi floor.

Nicki Millin of Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group, which pays the NHS bills of those living in the town, said: “This is a fantastic achievement and thanks to everyone involved in the fundraising efforts. It is great news for the people of Swindon and Shrivenham.”

Over the past two years hundreds of people have got behind the Brighter Futures fundraising efforts.

This month, 300 people took on the 5k Reindeer Run in aid of the appeal, while others have baked cakes, driven to Mongolia and thrown themselves out of aeroplanes to raise cash.

Brighter Futures’ Catherine said: “It’s been a crazy year. We’ve had some amazing events. People have done some extraordinary things to fundraise.”

In August, mum Sandra McGlone skydived from 15,000 feet – raising almost £1,000 for the radiotherapy appeal.

A year and a half before, she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer. Sandra found a lump in her breast just weeks before Christmas.

“I had to go through Christmas not knowing if it would be my last,” said the Taw Hill mum, who elected to have radiotherapy treatment in Cheltenham.

Last week Sandra, now 50, was sent an NHS letter giving her the official all clear. She said: “I received the best Christmas present ever.”

She added her congratulations to the GWH team, saying: “I think to get to £2m is fantastic. That’s an amazing achievement, although we’ve still got a way to go.

“It will make such a difference having a radiotherapy centre in Swindon. Until cancer touches your life, I don’t think people realise what you have to go through. At the lowest point in your life – that’s when you need as much help as you can get.”

Lisa Drew, sister of mum Julie Basleigh, who died in July after a two year battle with brain cancer, said: “We’re really pleased – and Julie would have been really made up.

“It’s a huge achievement that the town and the area around Swindon have raised that money for such a needed facility.”

The family has donated £7,500 to Brighter Futures this year. Lisa, 46, added: “Julie was an accountant and she would have said, ‘We’re not there yet’.”

The Adver has thrown its weight behind the radiotherapy appeal all year wuith weekly updates, but this month we asked readers to donate £1 each to help towards hitting the £2m milestone.

Michelle Tompkins, Swindon Advertiser’s deputy editor, said: “With many people finishing work for Christmas today, this is the best possible way to get the holidays off to a fantastic start.

“We are delighted to have played our part in helping Brighter Futures reach this crucial target, and we’d like to thank each and every reader who made their donation of £1 or more for showing, yet again, that Swindon truly has a heart of gold.”