IT'S a perfect picture of glowing health and happiness and we want to keep it that way.

Smiling Sophie and James are just two of the hundreds of local schoolchildren who can give Fylde folk a massive boost in the fight against cancer.

That's why the Blackpool and Fylde Citizen has joined forces with the McMillan Windmill Appeal to form the Little Champions who will help raise the staggering £2.9million needed to provide the Fylde coast with a purpose-built cancer unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

The Little Champions are our future generation and we owe it to them and to ourselves to help provide local people with the very best information, treatment and care for the deadly disease.

And Lytham's Hall Park County Primary School is spearheading our campaign to involve schoolchildren throughout the Fylde in this most worthy of causes thanks to their unstinting and enthusiastic support throughout the MRI Scanner Appeal.

Headteacher Christine Jenkinson is thrilled to be involved right from the off and told the Citizen: "Our children love to help and because this is a local charity and with something so close to their hearts it spurs them on even more.

"It's also wonderful to see Victor the bear back at our school as we won the competition to name him as the mascot of the MRI Scanner Appeal.

"We are always very happy to help with anything at the hospital as someone who needs it in the future may be someone the children know." Every little bit helps: car boots, garage sales, schools stalls, washing dad's car, baking biscuits - it's up to you and every month the Citizen will elect a Little Champion who we believe has done the most to fill the coffers or made an extraordinary effort.

Any schoolchild can take part and any event is helpful no matter how small so children all over the area are asked to get their thinking caps on to come up with new and novel ways of raising funds and to let the Citizen know what's going on.

Director of fundraising for the appeal, Mr. Ramesh Ghandi, said: "I am over the moon Lytham Hall Park School and the Citizen are involved.

"Every drop makes an ocean and if we can raise at least half our target by the end of next year, McMillan can begin building the new unit."

The new cancer unit will be sited adjacent to the recently refurbished inpatient and day case ward for Haematology and Oncology and will provide complementary consulting and examination rooms for cancer treatment specialists to see more patients, facilities to run more clinics, larger and more comfortable waiting areas, provide accommodation for counselling plus additional services for patients requiring chemotherapy with future expansion possible.

And the target is also for no patient to have to travel to Christie's Hospital in Manchester.

So let's get together and reach that target of £2.9million and make a difference to cancer treatment in the Fylde.

For further information on the McMillan Windmill Appeal (registered charity no 261017) contact Ramesh Gandhi or Elaine Fossett at the Blackpool Victoria Hospital NHS Trust, 4 Furness Drive, Poulton, FY6 8JT, or telephone (01253) 303142, (01253) 303145 and do your bit to keep the Fylde Coast a happy and healthy one.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.