THANKS to the generosity of Gazette and Herald readers the appeal to buy meningitis scanners for the three major hospitals serving the county has reached its initial target.

More than £6,760 has been collected just six weeks since the appeal was launched.

Kind-hearted readers have dipped deeply into their pockets to send in £3, 700 in donations through the post.

Donations from local charities including £265 from Chippenham Rotary Club and £500 from Wiltshire Freemasons, have helped swell the total, and readers are still planning further fundraising events.

Other donations have come from family trusts and there was one £1,000 personal donation from a reader in the Pewsey Vale.

The generosity means that all three hospitals serving Wiltshire will now have meningitis scanners and other nearby hospitals could also benefit.

Sir Leslie Loader, from Mildenhall, who came to the Gazette to suggest an appeal, has been handed a further £1,000 in donations.

He has also received a single anonymous donation of £2,000.

The generosity of Gazette readers has been simply wonderful. There is no other way to describe it, he said.

One of the Immunosonic machines which each cost £2,000, has already been installed at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Swindon.