RACING enthusiasts taking part in a track day at the Castle Combe Circuit hit top gear after raising more than £5,000 for the Royal United Hospital’s Forever Friends Appeal.

Now in its third year, the annual event has raised £12,000 for the RUH after Maria Fisher, the circuit’s sales co-ordinator, discovered she had a cancerous tumour on her lung in 2013.

The 51-year-old had the whole of her right lung removed and chose the charity when asked by track day organiser, Chris Darwin, to select a cause for the day of racing.

“It was three years ago last week that I had the lung removed,” said Mrs Fisher, who has worked at the circuit for 21 years.

“It was a shock when I found out. I used to be really fit and healthy and a non-smoker.

“Chris asked me what charity I wanted the money from the track day to go towards and I had to go with the RUH for all their help and support.

“The track day itself this year was brilliant, we had about 40 cars there and raised £5,200.

“Since last year I’ve been doing light exercise and did the Race for Life in Bath last year and raised £1,400.”

The Forever Friends Appeal aims to raise £8.5m to build a new state-of-art cancer centre at the Bath hospital which is hoped to be open by 2018.