A BALL, raffle and auction helped push the amount raised for a cancer charity since it linked up with the County Gazette towards two-thirds of a million pounds.

The Ball Ladies event at the Hobby Horse, in Minehead, realised a mammoth £3,322.44 for the Somerset Unit for Radiotherapy Equipment (SURE).

The shindig brought in £1,572.44, with a £250 donation from Butlin's and £1,500 match funding from Barclays and Santander banks.

Hatch Beauchamp Theatre Society (HATS) donated £550 following its production of Michael Frayn's Matchbox Theatre in memory of Gillian Derbyshire.

SURE, which equips the Beacon Centre cancer unit at Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital, received £50 from Wayne Collins, who ran the Exeter Half Marathon also in Gillian Derbyshire's memory.

Donations included £20 from Lydia Easton and £50 from Donald Reason, of Galmington.

There was £59.25 from the collection pots at E.J. Teare Newsagents, Wellington, who also collected £37.50 in 5p coins.

Other collections of 5ps amounted to £2 from Trevor Warner, £3.30 from Jean Knight, £60 from Friends at the Wellesley Club, £65.95 from Roy and Jan Beal, of Chedzoy, and £149.95 from the Beacon Centre.

There was also £108.55 - £65.95 of it in 5ps - from Norman Tomkies, of Street, £11.85, mostly in 5ps, from Janet Penlington, of Yeovil, and £11.85, mostly in 5ps, from Hazel Clyst, family and friends.

This week's bumper total of £4,551.44 means £652,657.87 has been raised since SURE linked up with the County Gazette.