ALMOST 7,000 5p coins have been collected in the past week to boost a charity appeal to buy equipment at the Beacon Centre cancer unit at Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital.

Donations of the little silver coins to the County Gazette-backed Somerset Unit for Radiotherapy Equipment (SURE) initiative included £55 from Joan Greedy and friends, £30 from Mrs D. B. Marks, £35 from Doreen Jones and friend, £10 from Brian King, £20 from Woolavington Church Guild, £3.35 from Pauline, £50 from Alcombe Methodist Church, which donated a further £80, and £142.75 collected at the Beacon Centre, where a further £7.70 was donated.

Paul Besley also kept SURE organisers busy counting after handing over £107.22 in coins in memory of his wife; £66.29 from the Esso petrol station in Wellington Road, Taunton; £42.11 from Taunton Country Shop; £38.05 from the One Stop Shop, Galmington; £5 from an anonymous donor; £50 from Taunton School student fundraising; £510.44 from Kingsmead School, Wiveliscombe; and £100 from the Coastline Singers, of Highbridge, from concerts, parties, and sing-a-longs at retirement homes.

The total raised since SURE linked up with the Gazette now stands at £392,575.84.