The Wiltshire Times appeal for the Dorothy House Hospice at Winsley is continuing to go from strength to strength.

Over the next year we aim to highlight the work of the charity and to help its fundraising appeal. Every year around £1m has to be raised to allow it to keep running.

Among those who have done their bit to help are school friends of a woman who has motor neurone disease. Denise Gaslonde, 40, of Melksham, was diagnosed with the disease almost six years ago.

Mrs Gaslonde's former classmates at George Ward School met after 19 years at a class reunion in September, when they collected over £100 which was handed to Katrina Sudbury, deputy head of fundraising.

Mrs Gaslonde, her husband Steve, 38, and children Ryan, nine and Samuel 10, have been using the services of Dorothy House for at least five years and have found the care and staff invaluable.

Mr Gaslonde said: "The care given is personal, the staff are friendly and have been fantastic. There is so much behind-the-scenes work that goes unnoticed."

Widower Keith Parker hopes to raise thousands of pounds for the nurses who helped his late wife Barbara in the last days of her four-year battle against breast cancer.

Mrs Parker died last July, aged 52, and her husband plans to recreate the rock and roll club where they first met to hold a charity memorial concert and dance in her honour.

Mr Parker, 53, of Kingham Close, Chippenham, plans to recreate Chippenham's Top Twenty rock and roll club, where major acts including The Kinks, Billy Fury and T Rex once played, at the Neeld Hall on November 11.

The club started life in Trowbridge in 1956 and moved to Chippenham in 1959, where it ran until 1971, drawing crowds of up to 1,200 from as far away as Bristol and Bath.