Masked ball to top off £5k of fundraising

Staff said that many of their colleagues had been touched by cancer and wanted to help organise a charity cake sale at the council house in Oldbury.

After that sale last May raised around £500, the staff decided to make it their mission to bring in even more money and the challenge snowballed from there.

Members of the planning support and land charges department have been busy dreaming up a range of events over the past few months.

From cake sales to quiz nights and guess the number of sweets in jar contests to Black Country Day themed fun, it has been a busy challenge.

But now fundraisers say are delighted to have brought in £5,030.55 which will be donated to Cancer Research.

The team hope they can push that total even higher when they hold a masquerade ball at The Village Hotel, in Dudley, tomorrow.

One of the organisers, Debbie Geary, said her colleagues wanted to also thank their manager Maxine Gethins who allowed them to hold all the events.

"We decided to start raising money for Cancer Research as a number of us in the office and myself included have been affected from cancer in the last few years with family members so we decided to do something positive and raise some money for this worthy cause," said Debbie, of Kyngston Road, West Bromwich.

The 34-year-old who is a communications support officer and land chargers officer added: "We feel really proud to have raised this much and it is nice that everyone has supported us.

"It has been brilliant and the support from work has been great.

"We started off with a cake sale back in April last year and we raised £513 in one sale so we decided to carry on and raise as much money as possible and our target kept rising and we hope to have achieved £5,000 at the end of our masquerade ball. But we have already made it."

Almost 80 people will attend the ball at the venue, off Castlegate Park, from 7.30pm.