FIVE years of tireless fundraising efforts are almost at an end for an Oxford cancer support service.

Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre says its purpose-built centre in Headington is nearing completion, with fundraising about to hit the £3m target.

The service, now housed in a mobile building at the Churchill Hospital, will move to its new home nearby early next year.

Breast cancer survivor Margaret Brown, 71, from Abingdon, who was an Olympic flame torchbearer in July, started visiting the Oxford centre in 2007 after her second operation for breast cancer.

Since then she has regularly volunteered for Maggie’s and will run a Christmas tombola at the charity’s Oxford Christmas fayre on Saturday, December 8.

The centre at the hospital will be transformed into a winter wonderland between 11am and 3pm with an array of stalls, cake and hot drinks.

Mrs Brown said: “Maggie’s made me feel I was not alone and I was able to pop in at any time. Although I’m profoundly deaf, Maggie’s is a wonderful place that really helped in my well-being.

“It feels good to give something back, especially after Maggie’s helped my recovery from breast cancer.”