KIND-HEARTED Northerners have raised £300,000 for cancer services in record time.

Officials from the Macmillan Cancer Relief Fund said they have been amazed by the response to their appeal.

Macmillan is hoping to raise £600,000 in three years, but is already half way to its target, just over a year after the launch.

The appeal will fund a palliative care consultant to work with terminally-ill patients and pay for two extra Macmillan nurses.

More than £2,700 for the charity's County Durham appeal was collected from customers at Morrisons supermarket, in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in the first week of December.

Similar collections in every Morrisons store in the UK also raised large sums for the cancer charity, but Bishop Auckland's final total of £2,727 was the second largest in the country. Only shoppers in Huddersfield in West Yorkshire dug deeper.

Caroline Peacock, fund-raising officer with the Macmillan County Durham appeal, said: "We really would like to thank all of the people of Bishop Auckland who donated so generously to the Morrisons collection in December. The total raised is an absolutely spectacular result."

Samantha Temple, charities co-ordinator at the Bishop Auckland store, said: "We have obviously got very generous people around here."

Another big cash donation came from a concert of music, carols and readings in Durham Cathedral just before Christmas.

The event was so successful that it raised more than £9,000 - split three ways by Macmillan, Marie Curie Cancer Care and St Cuthbert's Hospice in Durham - the charities which organised the event.

The concert helped the Macmillan County Durham to reach a total of £300,000.

"It is really wonderful news, people have been so supportive," said Ms Peacock.

"Now we have reached the half-way stage in terms of money raised. We still have a long way to go, and we will be redoubling our efforts throughout this year and next, so we can reach the total as quickly as possible," she said.

Macmillan recently confirmed that Dr Jennifer Skinner, a palliative care consultant, had been appointed, thanks to matching funding from the Durham Dales and Sedgefield Primary Care Trusts. But because of the size of County Durham it has been decided to extend the campaign to cover the appointment of a second consultant.

* Anyone interested in raising cash for the appeal is asked to contact 0191-378 1188.