Patients with cancer, heart conditions and in critical care are just some of the thousands of people whose lives have been touched by an unprecedented number of donations.

Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals Charity is celebrating a record year of giving, achieving its £1.2m target for the CT Scanner Appeal as well as thousands raised to support other vital projects.

Just over £2m has been raised between January and December this year to help support pioneering research and new equipment across the hospitals. This includes an innovative study using light to help diagnose cancer, jaundice meters to safeguard new babies from serious illness and state-of-the-art equipment.

The new CT scanners are now in operation and consultant radiologist at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Dr Garrett McGann said they are making a massive difference providing 'a real step up in image quality and speed.'

"When I started in radiology a whole scan would take about 40 minutes, this new equipment can scan the entire chest in two seconds. One of the new scanners has been specifically set up for heart patients and a whole heart can now be scanned in a quarter of a second," he said.

"For the first time, we have got genuine human obtained artificial intelligence improving our images to an amazing quality we have never seen before."

Events such as Walk for Wards, the street velodrome in Cheltenham and a John Lewis fashion show helped raise thousands for the charity over the last 12 months.

Shoppers also helped raise £10,000 for FOCUS, the charitable fund for the Gloucestershire Oncology Centre, through the Tesco Bags of Help blue token scheme. The money has gone towards equipment to help with precision radiotherapy treatment, particularly for patients with breast cancer or head and neck cancers.

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust admitted 165,000 patients in 2018/19 and an average of £12 for every patient has been raised for extra care and equipment by the charity in the last year.

Head of fundraising Richard Smith said it had seen record levels of giving for the charity.

"We have been overwhelmed by the support we have received this year not just for our main CT Scanner Appeal but also for smaller projects and campaigns throughout the year," he said.

"As well as donations, gifts in wills and Justgiving challenges, we have seen so many fantastic fundraising events taking place over the last 12 months so thank you to everyone who has supported us this year.

"Next year, we hope to support even more projects across our hospitals over and above NHS provision to help better the experience for our patients."

For more information about the charity or to help support its work, visit https://www.gloshospitals.nhs.uk/charity/.