A GROUP of friends have raised over £1,700 for Musgrove Park Hospital's Beacon Centre, The Breast Care Centre, and Children's Units.

Mandy and Wendy Parsons ran several fundraisers to hit their target, including raising £600 for Mandy's 60th birthday on March 18.

On May 23 they raised £130 at a Table Sale at Bridgwater & Taunton College's Taunton site. Mandy sold five crochet blankets at the sale, donating seven more to the Special Care Baby Unit. Mandy and another friend of the two, Karen Greedy are now working on providing more blankets for the 'Children's Units'.

The dynamic duo then joined Friends of Bulford Hall, Wellington, for a coffee morning on June 12 to raise another £1,000 for the Breast Cancer Care Centre.

The coffee morning was a "roaring success" with a raffle, tombola, a cake table, plenty of coffee and tea with biscuits, and lots of "enthusiastic chat" and reflective stories of those lost and saved from cancer.

Wendy and Mandy presented a big cheque totalling £1730, to Max Patch, 28, and Zoe Steer, community fundraisers for the Love Musgrove charity at the Breast Cancer Care Centre on June 27.

The duo also donated coffee and tea, plus chocolate biscuits, to the Centre so visitors and staff could join in on the presentation.

Wendy said: "The friends of Bulford were invited but proved to be camera shy, however, we passed the cheque on in their name also. Max was also presented personally with a chocolate medal. He did well too."

The cause is especially important to Wendy and Mandy because of personal and family experiences. Wendy had breast cancer that was irradicated in 2022 by an operation in the Day Hospital.

They added: "We would like to thank the hospital itself, staff and all who donated to the raffle and tombola and those who attended on the day."

The pair said a special thanks to "Karen and her husband of The Weir, who kindly donated a café voucher as a raffle prize."

The Halifax were also thanked for their super-quick arrival of the giant cheque.

Wendy said: "The brave souls with breast cancer including male sufferers and staff of ‘The Breast Cancer Care Centre’ will benefit and were incredibly grateful, as was Max of Love Musgrove."