Grateful Ruth Pitt will be first in line to volunteer at the new Prospect Hospice facility in Savernake Hospital after experiencing first hand the care the charity provides.

Her husband of 28 years, Martin, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died in August 2012, aged 78.

Egg farmer Mr Pitt, who had three children and two step-children, farmed at Levetts Farm in Clench Common.

As he started to need more care towards the end of his life, the community nurses from Marlborough Practice contacted Prospect in Wroughton where he went for respite care.

Mrs Pitt said: “It gave him such a lot of comfort because he felt that he was being looked after and he needed the help that was there which I couldn’t give him.

“He always wanted to die at home but when it got to the end he got frightened of how he was going to die and he wanted the comfort of professional care. There were always smiling faces there, they uplifted your spirits. There was no doom and gloom, they’re all so welcoming and made you feel better.”

The new centre in Marlborough will offer outpatient services, meaning patients won’t have to travel as far for treatment. The Gazette is urging readers to help raise the £75,000 the charity needs to fund the project.

Mrs Pitt said: “When Martin had to go to the Great Western Hospital for treatment or Ridgeway, the travelling really set him back for a couple of days.

“To have just been able to take him up to Savernake would have eased his pain a heck of a lot.”

Family support workers and the bereavement team will visiting the centre.

Mrs Pitt said: “They do look after the family very much. I go to the group bereavement counselling.

“Some people go for one to one but I didn’t want that, I wanted to go to meet people who had gone through something similar to me.”