THE Imperial Cancer Research Fund charity shop in Marlborough, which had been threatened with closure, received a double dose of good news this week.

Charity chiefs have been able to negotiate a new lease for the Kingsbury Street shop that volunteers have run for the past ten years.

And daredevil Donna Smart from Oare dropped in on Tuesday with a cheque for £856, which she raised by parachuting from 13,000 feet over Netheravon Airfield.

Miss Smart, 23, whose family lives in Pewsey, made her sponsored tandem jump attached to an instructor from the Red Devils parachute display team.

She said: "I had always wanted to make a parachute jump but I did not have the nerve to do it off my own back so I decided to do it for charity and then I could not back out."

Miss Smart works as a team leader caring for people with learning difficulties and said she was sponsored by some of the families she works with.

She decided to jump for the cancer charity because her late grandfather, 'Tedder' Hughes from Pewsey died from leukaemia and a close relative had recovered from breast cancer.

She jumped with close friend Michelle Forsyth, from Pewsey, another carer, who raised £500 for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance appeal.

Meanwhile the staff at the Kingsbury Street Imperial Cancer Research shop have been celebrating the news that it is not to shut after all.

The charity said closure had been on the cards following a large rent increase, but a new lease has since been negotiated.

Area retail manager Judith Thomas said: "It's great news for our charity."