Fundraisers collected about £2,000 a day for 10 months to help a charity appoint four new nurses for cancer patients in Oxfordshire.

Staff at Macmillan Cancer Relief are celebrating after completing their £600,000 appeal in less than a year.

It means they have enough money to support two palliative care specialist nurses at Sobell House Hospice, based at the Churchill Hospital, in Oxford, as well as a pair of clinical nurse specialists to care for patients treated at the Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary for three years.

Macmillan's Oxfordshire office started their appeal at the beginning of October last year, and fundraisers from across the county have worked tirelessly to reach the target quickly.

Jo Faulkner Macmillan's Oxfordshire fundraising manager, said: "It's such fantastic news that the Appeal has been completed, thanks to the generosity of the people of Oxfordshire.

"We have been truly overwhelmed by the support and generosity of local people and the appeal has been completed in an unpredictably short space of time.

"County people already benefit from more then 20 Macmillan specialist nurses and a Macmillan consultant in palliative medicine working in hospitals and the community.

"More local people, however, are being diagnosed with cancer every week and our services are needed now more than ever."

About 3,000 people in Oxfordshire are diagnosed with cancer every year, and Macmillan works to make sure each gets the best care possible.

The new Sobell House staff will join a team of dedicated workers looking after patients and their families, as the patients experience the later stages of the disease.

They will help people like Neville Beale, 49, of Cumnor Hill, near Oxford, who was diagnosed with tonsil cancer in December 2002. He received care from RI head and neck specialist nurse Jacqui Horne.

Mr Beale told the Oxford Mail in May: "Jacqui offered great pre-surgery support when I was feeling vulnerable.

"She provided tremendous support in loads of different ways. There's emotional support when you get the trauma of discovering something is wrong with you and knowledge to help you understand what's going to happen."