THERE was cause for celebration at the Charlotte Straker Project in Corbridge on Saturday when a £120,000 fund-raising appeal reached its target after just three months.

The charity set about raising the sum to provide a free respite care bed for three years to the local community.

The target has been reached through a mixture of generous individual and company donations, grants and fund-raising efforts across Tynedale.

The new service is scheduled to begin on January 1, and Charlotte Straker has set aside one room to offer free, short-term respite care breaks.

Chairman of trustees Bill Cunningham said: “We are absolutely amazed by everyone’s generosity and we are so delighted that our Community Respite Care fund-raising appeal has reached its total in such a short space of time.

“I want to thank every single person, organisation or company that has donated – their generosity will make a real difference to carers and hard-pressed families in Tynedale.

“We celebrate achieving our target. However the costs of providing nursing care have recently increased and the actual cost of the service over the three years has gone up by £9,000. So we will keep the appeal open, as I am confident money needed will come in to cover this.”

Deputy manager Iwona Proszowska added: “We are now at the stage where we are starting to take bookings and I would like people to ring me and inquire about the service on (01434) 633999.”