Staff at Nationwide Building Society have teamed up with Cheltenham medical charity Cobalt to raise funds for a new MRI scanner.

The team at the Cheltenham High Street branch have set themselves a demanding £10,000 target between now and October and plan to take part in challenge events as well as volunteer for the charity.

Next Tuesday, branch staff will be holding a cake sale, wearing blue and running a tombola from 9am to 5pm.

Members are invited to join in the fun by popping into the branch for a coffee and cake and a chance to win on the tombola.

Julia Jenkins, head of fundraising at Cobalt, said "We currently provide diagnostic imaging for over 50,000 patients each year.

"A new MRI scanner will enable us to offer our services to a far wider number of the local community.

"The scanners are a safe way of producing images that can diagnose medical conditions and produce high resolution pictures of any part of the body in any direction."

Leanne Dalby, senior branch manager at Nationwide, said "We are delighted to be fundraising for Cobalt.

"We chose the charity as a number of staff and customers' lives have been touched by cancer and early diagnosis is so essential.

"We can't wait to get organising lots of fun activities and look forward to smashing our target."

Picture: left to right, Polly McDaid (customer service manager), Leanne Hardiman, Joseph Harper, Harvey Walsingham