A FUNDRAISING drive to offer pioneering treatment to women with breast cancer in Swindon has received a cash boost from Tesco Extra in Ocotal Way.

As part of the store’s re-launch celebrations, charity Brighter Futures was presented with a cheque for £500 to support its appeal to raise funds for a new intra-operative radiotherapy service for breast cancer at Great Western Hospital.

Deputy Mayor Andrew Bennett (Con, Ridgeway) also joined the celebrations and cut the ribbon to mark the end of months of hard work which has transformed the store into a modern shopping environment.

Deputy store manager Paul Sheppard said: “We’ve really enjoyed our re-launch celebration. It was fantastic to officially unveil all of our new ranges and departments to our customers.

“I’d like to thank our deputy mayor, Coun Bennett and Lesley (Bayliss) from Brighter Futures for taking the time to join us.

“It was lovely to meet them both and it was great to hear from Lesley how the £500 donation will be used to benefit our local community.”

Brighter Futures is the official charity for Great Western Hospital and raises funds for equipment and research which falls outside of the NHS budget.

The intra-operative radiotherapy is new to the UK and is not currently available in the South West.

Lesley said: “On behalf of everyone at Brighter Futures, I’d like to thank the Tesco Extra team for their help and support.

“Raising funds for this new breast cancer treatment will revolutionise the treatment that we can offer to breast cancer patients in Swindon and Wiltshire.

“It will mean after surgery, patients will not have to wait several weeks for radiotherapy and will not have to travel to radiotherapy centres in Oxford or Bath for frequent treatment.”

The improvements made to the Tesco Extra store are part of the Building a Better Tesco programme, which will see 650 stores in the UK refurbished this year.

The investment has seen new concepts added to the store including artisan coffee shop Harris + Hoole and world food restaurant Giraffe.

Other new additions to the store include a fresh pizza counter and a wide range of freshly prepared take-away meal options from the Food-to-Go range.

The Community Room is also a new feature and offers local charities and organisations a free place to meet, host events, run workshops, health groups and training courses or fitness sessions.

The room can be booked out by contacting the store’s community champion, Michelle Hobbs, on: swindon@communityattesco.co.uk “So far, feedback has been really positive from our customers,” said Paul.

“The changes were made with our shoppers in mind so to hear that they’re enjoying the new ranges and departments is great.

“We wanted to thank our customers for their co-operation while the work was taking place so we loved having the opportunity to officially invite them back in to their fully renovated store at the re-launch event.”