Oswestry couple help cancer appeal hit its target

The appeal was launched in October with the aim of raising £12,000 by the end of January to fund three specific projects in the radiotherapy department at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Mr and Mrs Bussey, from Oswestry, held a seafood lunch and auction in their own home to raise the funds that took the appeal past the target.

Mrs Bussey is no stranger to fundraising for Lingen Davies. Before she married she was treated at the RSH for Hodgkin's lymphoma, then went on to set up her own charity and raised over £100,000 towards the £5 million cost of building the Lingen Davies Centre, which opened in September 2012.

She said: "I always felt I wanted to continue doing more fund-raising and this just seemed like the perfect time. My husband Vic is an excellent chef and he suggested doing a seafood lunch. We sold tickets to friends and family and we had about 60 guests there in total. We did an auction and a raffle as well, and were pleased to end up with £2,000."

The money raised from the 12K of Christmas appeal will be used to fund a ceiling-mounted hoist to assist less mobile radiotherapy patients; refurbishment and re-siting of some of the waiting areas within the radiotherapy department to offer more privacy, and a DPD system which helps verify the dose of radiotherapy delivered to patients and potentially reduce the treatment time.

Louise Cliffe, fundraising manager for Lingen Davies, said: "We are delighted to have reached our target. This is the first time we have run a specific Christmas Appeal so we were not sure how it would go, but we have been thrilled by the support we have had once again from the people of Shropshire and Mid Wales. We would like to say thank you to everyone who has helped us to reach our target."

Money raised above the £12,000 for the three specific radiography projects will be used for the charity's general purpose of aiming to improve facilities for all cancer patients in Shropshire and Mid Wales.