Cancer Connections : help, support,advice and information for South Tyneside, North East.

A GAZETTE appeal to help a South Tyneside charity buy its own base is a massive step closer today after a £15,000 boost. We have teamed up with Cancer Connections to help the South Shields charity realise its dream of buying its own property where it can help people who suffer from, and are affected by, cancer.

That dream is nearer its £50,000 target today after the huge donation from the South Tyneside Upper Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancer Support Group.

A £10,000 slice will go towards the Gazette’s Quids In appeal which is helping the charity raise the final £50,000 it needs for its bungalow, while £5,000 will go towards refurbishing it.

This boost pushes the appeal to £35,000 – leaving us needing £15,000 to reach our target.

Reg Hall, one of the charity’s directors and co-founder, said: “This is an enormous leap towards our final target. The GI group have been so kind and supportive to us already. They’re terrific.

“When we said we needed £350,000 for the house, I wrote to lots of charities and companies and said we would need a lot of outside help, but we are so close and only about £60,000 has been donated from outside the borough.”

Gazette editor John Szymanski said: “With only £15,000 left to raise, the Quids In appeal is going great guns.

“We are well on track to ensure that this plan by a very worthy local cause, to help cancer patients and their families, comes to fruition with a new base.

“I would urge everyone to keep on chipping in, if they haven’t already, and make Cancer Connections’s dreams come true.”

The GI support group – which meets at the Old Ship pub in Sunderland Road, Harton, South Shields, every six weeks – has already given £2,000 to the charity in past donations.

The group, for sufferers of oesophagus and stomach cancer, started six years ago when founding members Linda Mordain, David Houlsby and Ken Batley found there was nowhere to turn once their hospital treatment was over.

Chairwoman Mrs Mordain said: “The money has come from a multitude of different fundraisers and donations.

“It’s all from local people, so it was important it was going to Cancer Connections because it’s a local charity.”

“We all think this is a very, very good thing for the local area, they need it badly.

“They have done a marvellous job in raising so much money in such a short space of time. We’re only happy to help.”

The Upper GI Support Group has also made donations to other local cancer charities including St Clare’s Hospice in Jarrow.

To make a donation or for more information, call Cancer Connections on 456 5081. Alternatively, you can donate at the charity Justgiving page here.