ONE of Shrivenham’s “best pantos ever” has raised hundreds of pounds for Swindon’s cancer fighting fund.

Actors from the Shrivenham Amateur Dramatic Society (SADS) took to the boards last month in aid of Brighter Futures’ £2.9 million radiotherapy appeal.

The group, whose show Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was written and directed by professional actor Michael Garland, chose Brighter Futures in memory of long-standing SADS member Alan Todkill, who died last year. Brighter Futures was one of the charities selected for Alan’s funeral.

SADS’s three-night panto extravaganza raised almost £430 towards the hospital charity’s radiotherapy appeal.

The cash will be used to kit out a state-of-the-art new radiotherapy centre at Swindon’s Great Western Hospital – saving cancer patients the excruciating 70-mile round trip for treatment at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford.

One of those forced to make that journey in the past is Julia Jones, treasurer of SADS – and involved in the society since 2013.

Two years after joining the group, Julia was diagnosed with breast cancer. The Shrivenham woman, now 63, said: “Brighter Futures is important to me. I had cancer. I had to go up to Oxford. It’s important that we have our own radiotherapy centre. I think everybody recognises that.

“I went to Swindon hospital initially and they were brilliant. But you couldn’t do radiotherapy there. I had to go everyday to Oxford.

“I was lucky. I had a taxi driver who I got to know and I took friends with me. I had a lot of support.

“For some it’s not so easy. It’s so important that we have our own radiotherapy centre.

“Brighter Futures is a charity that everybody gives to, because you don’t know what’s going to happen to you.”

The SADS performance of popular panto Snow White ran over three days last month.

Donations for programmes alone raised £129, with the group adding a further £300.

Julia said: “I think the village thought it was one of the best pantos we’d ever done.”

She added of the Brighter Futures cause: “There wasn’t anybody who wasn’t going to give to that.”