THE PEOPLE of East Cheshire have been digging deep in their pockets over the last 12 months to raise money for our Macmillan campaign.

And because the One Million Pennies Appeal proved to be one of the most successful fundraisers for the Macclesfield appeals team, they have decided to re-launch the initiative for 2004.

Many readers have been under the impression that the team only want to collect pennies so they have re-named the event as the 'One Million Coin Collection'.

The guidelines haven't changed though. The aim is - as the name suggests - to collect one million coins as soon as possible. If every single person in the East Cheshire catchment area donated at least £2 to the cancer unit appeal, the target of £1.5m will be reached in no time at all. However, with a total of more than £870,000 in the bank so far, there is still a long way to go.

The idea is simple, all everyone has to do is drop their spare coins in one of the collection boxes and the money is then used to help fund the new state-of-the-art, purpose-built cancer resource centre at Macclesfield Hospital. Last year, Express readers helped the team to reach the one million target and they hope that the appeal will be just as popular this year.

Amy Wilson, appeals manager at the Macclesfield appeals office, said: "We never could have anticipated the amount of support we received from the public during the one million pennies appeal. It has proved to be one of our most popular events and we just hope that members of the local community continue to help us over the next 12 months."

Collection buckets can be found at the Macclesfield Express office on Chestergate, the Wilmslow Express office on Water Lane, Silk FM on Bridge Street in Macclesfield and at the main entrance of Macclesfield Hospital.

If anyone would like to have a collection box at their place of work or would like to be named as a drop-off point, please contact Amy or Rebecca on 01625 661369.