AN ANNUAL charity ball has helped secure the future of charities providing vital services for people in Swindon.

The charities to benefit from this year's Swindon charity ball, which raised £47,000, have been presented with their money.

One of the top awards was £13,000 for the Family Mediation Service to help its children's counselling work. The charity lost its funding earlier this year.

Mediation practice manager Trevor Morkham said: "It's a service for children who have gone through the separation or divorce of their parents, and this money has been a lifesaver for us this year.

"It has been a real struggle since losing the funding to get enough money just to keep a skeleton service running.

"This will ensure we can keep going long enough to look for funding on a longer term basis."

Also celebrating a windfall that will make a huge difference to people's lives is the Swindon branch of Macmillan Cancer Support, which received £8,000.

Fundraising assistant Rowena Cotterill said the money would fund the introduction of three new Macmillan representatives, to add to the existing team of six based at the Great Western Hospital.

A rare cancer specialist, with a remit for skin cancer, and a social worker are to join the team, while a welfare benefits adviser will be setting up at the Citizens Advice Bureau.

"So many people have financial worries when they have cancer, and they will be able to go and see the adviser who will tell them what they are eligible for, and will help them go through the 2in thick form," said Rowena.

The Swindon branch of Mind will be putting their £7,000 into improvements at Oak Lodge, in Stratton, which was opened in October by Melinda Messenger. It provides respite care for people with mental health issues.

Other organisations to benefit this year are the Swindon Town Study Centre, Swindon Carers, Koalas Swindon Opportunity Group, the Swindon Ten to Eighteen Project and the Friends of Crowdys Hill School.

The ball, sponsored by RWE npower, the Swindon Marriot, Deacons Jewellers, the Rotary Club of Swindon and the Advertiser, took place at the Marriott Hotel in May.

Ball chairman Nigel Henham said: "Without an awful lot of help from the local business community and a lot of other people we wouldn't have been able to raise as much as we did."