WE are almost a quarter of the way to our £80,000 target after edging towards the £18,000 mark.

The latest running total for our appeal stands at £17,947 - less than four months after the campaign was launched.

Cash has flooded in from all walks of life from throughout Wyre Forest, with Kidderminster Carnival Committee, vocal group Cum Sing Wi' We and Kidderminster's Samurai Judo Club among the groups which have helped out.

A further £240 has been pledged by friends of Suzanne Smith, a Bewdley woman who died after her car was swept away in a swollen ford last year. More than £3,000 was donated to Operation Covert at her funeral in January.

Two very different anonymous donations, meanwhile, have come into the Shuttle/Times & News for our appeal. An envelope containing £100 in cash was brought into our Blackwell Street premises a day after a weighty £1.91 was donated in coppers.