SWINDON CANCER APPEAL: Nationwide Building Society has kicked off the Swindon Cancer Appeal with a massive £80,000 donation.

Employees at the Swindon-based finance giant in Pipers Way have been putting work to one side and raising cash for the cancer charity over the last four years.

Some of the staff have donned swimming hats for a sponsored swimathon, rabbit ears for a day of silence and sat back and relaxed during a bonanza coffee morning.

Tim Hughes, head of Nationwide's external affairs department, presented the hefty cheque to Macmillan and said: "We are delighted to be giving this money to such a fantastic charity." And they're not alone. Pledges of money and support are already coming in from around the town just a day after we launched the campaign.

As well as the £80,000 donated by Nationwide, television comic Dom Joly has put his hand in his pocket to support our appeal.

The Trigger Happy TV presenter, who lives near Cirencester, said: "I am happy to kick off by sending a cheque for £100.

"Macmillan Cancer Relief does an amazing job and I urge anyone who can, to do anything they can to help out this campaign and raise the figure of £600,000."

We launched the campaign yesterday with 11 pages devoted to the appeal, which aims to provide two new Macmillan nurses for the Great Western Hospital and a specialist consultant in cancer care who will work at the GWH and Prospect Hospice.

Money raised will fund the posts for three years, after which the NHS will take over. Some of the money will also be used to fund a part-time anaesthetist and award grants to individual patients, for equipment and a wide range of services.

Nationwide staff raised their contribution with weird and wacky events, even creating a mile of pennies, which snaked around the building's atrium and brought in £1,000.

More than £25,000 was raised following the September coffee morning, hosted for the fifth year at the Great Western Designer Outlet Village. Former television chat show host Vanessa Feltz turned up to show her support for Macmillan after her mother Valerie died seven years ago.

She said at the event: "During the last two years of her life we had the help and support of a Macmillan nurse. The help they provide is invaluable at a time when families and relatives are at their most vulnerable."

And just last month more than 200 children in years seven and eight at Wroughton's Ridgeway School took part in the charity's Hold Your Tongue event, which challenged children to remain silent all day.

Nationwide's community affairs manager Michelle Leighton, 31, said the company was planning more exciting fundraising events for this year.

Macmillan's corporate fundraising manager, Jacqui Goldhill, said: "Swindon always does so well with raising money. It's really exciting to have such a huge cheque so early on.

"This is a significant amount which will go a long way to help improve the lives of cancer patients in Swindon."

Mike Welsh, whose wife Val was cared for by Macmillan nurses before she died from cancer last year, said: "I'm very please the Advertiser has set up this campaign to support Macmillan. The nurses enabled Val to pass away with great dignity. Anyone who has been through such a tragedy will know how wonderful and uplifting it is to have this service in Swindon."

Graziella Campisano, appeal manager at Swindon's Macmillan office, said: "We are delighted to have the full support of the Evening Advertiser and offer our sincere thanks.

"I am very excited about what we can achieve together for the good of Swindon and Marlborough people."

John Mills, 63, discovered he had prostate cancer last January but says the year has been bearable due to Macmillan nurses.

John, of Arthur Bennett Court in Birch Street, said: "I was shattered when I first found out I had terminal cancer. I thought it was the end of my life and it even crossed my mind to finish it all off. But since meeting the Macmillan nurses it has all seemed better and I've realised that even though I will die of it, I am alive now and I want to live. The appeal is an excellent way of making people aware of the good work Macmillan do."

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Tell us about your fundraising event, click here.