Community groups and staff at Weston General Hospital have so far raised a whopping £342,000 towards its scanner appeal.

The appeal, run by the League of Friends and Weston Area Health NHS Trust (WAHT), was started in April 2016 to raise £400,000 to refurbish the hospital’s X-ray department and buy life-saving digital scanning equipment and has raised 80 per cent of the funds required with just £58,000 left to go.

The department is already seeing the benefits of the appeal as new X-ray equipment has already been installed, and improvements have been made to the clinical results room and digital X-ray suite.

Further improvements are scheduled to be complete early in the new year, including the refurbishment of the waiting and reception areas, and a new inpatient trolley waiting area to dramatically improve privacy for patients.

Chairman of WAHT, Graham Paine, said: “The tremendous effort of our League of Friends, staff, patients – and their families – along with the general public, has been very rewarding both in the money raised and the community feel to the fundraising effort.

“We are very grateful to every donor for each pound that has been given.

“It is especially pleasing that we have been able to deliver some of the improvements promised by the scanner appeal while we continue to fundraise – so that donors can see their money is being turned into improvements for our patients immediately. We of course continue to seek the final £58,000 over the coming months.”

June Stephens, chairman of the League of Friends thanked the appeal’s many supporters.

She said: “To celebrate 60 years since the forming the League of Friends in Weston we decided to raise £400,000 to buy a new digital scanner; joined by the hospital trust this has been a great success.

“I have been amazed by the support of the volunteer members and the societies over the past two years.

“The hours of hard work fundraising has been extraordinary.

“I have been delighted to join with them to celebrate their success.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank them and hope in the future they will join us to see the finished department.”