FORMER mayor Ray Ballman handed out money to good causes in the town yesterday, after a year of fundraising managed to rake in nearly £11,500.

Open Door and Swindon Cares were the chosen beneficiaries of Coun Ballman’s year in office between February 2011 and May this year, and secured their share of £11,429.90 raised through monthly events including a quiz, a ball and curry evenings.

Representatives from the charities, which included Swindon Town Football in the Community and the Rowdy Bunch as part of Swindon Cares fundraising year, were at a special presentation at the Mayor’s Parlour, in the Civic Offices.

Coun Ballman (Lab, Gorse Hill and Pinehurst ) said: “It was really nice to see so many people from the charities come for the presentation.

“It has been a hard year fundraising, with not as many people coming to the events and money being short, but I’m delighted with the total amount and will keep working to support these lovely charities.

“All of them are small local organisations and this money really does help them. Open Door has got about 100 or so members and is a fantastic charity, while Football in the Community does lots of work for people with disabilities.

“I had a great time and really enjoyed my time as mayor – we had a quiz and a ball, some runners in the half-marathon as well.

“We tried to do something every month to keep it going.”

James Arkell, chairman of Arkell’s Brewery, who is involved with Swindon Cares, received the cheque on behalf of the philanthropic network.

He said: “We want to thank Ray for her hard work – she was a cracking mayor and really put Swindon on the map. It’s a huge cheque and the great thing is it goes a long way for these small charities.”

Clive Maguire, development manager for STFIC, said: “The money we received will go towards our disability program for children and adults with learning or physical difficulties.

“We run a festival every year in October and there are about 150 kids there and this really does help.”