BY PETE HENSHAW

NINE months hard work came to fruition this week as local fund-raisers hit the £10,000 mark.

The money has been raised by the South Cheshire branch of the Leukaemia Research Fund led by recent MBE recipient Allan Jepson.

Mr Jepson formed the South Cheshire branch 25 years ago and the whole team of fund-raisers met Cllr Barbara Bickerton, Mayor of Crewe and Nantwich to celebrate the achievement.

The branch has been instrumental in securing funding from the charity's HQ in London for the local centre which is based in Manchester.

Allan and his fellow fund-raisers have collected around £200,000 in the past for the centre.

Mayor Bickerton said: "We are so very lucky to have someone with such a kind heart and great determination in our community whose hard work has undoubtedly made a huge contribution to Leukaemia research in the UK."