ALI BABA and his 40 thieves burst on to the stage tonight and will join fund-raisers collecting cash for the £1 million SuperScan Appeal.

Members of the Blackburn Hospital Players are performing the panto to a near-sell-out audience every night next week at Queen's Park Hospital.

The Rotary Club of Blackburn Borough are also raising money and are inviting people to their casino evening next Friday at 8pm, tickets for which are available from Gray's clothing outlets in Penny Street and Northgate, Blackburn.

Pupils at Blackamoor Special School, Blackburn, helped to boost this week's total to £33,010 with their non-uniform day which raised £56. And a carol service arranged by the committee of Leamington Road Baptist Women's League, Blackburn, brought in £40 for the appeal. Raffle tickets for the winter scene of Victorian Blackburn, valued at £1,350 and depicted on the SuperScan Christmas cards, are now on sale. They can be bought from the main offices at Queen's Park Hospital, BRI, Lancashire Evening Telegraph offices, Blackburn town hall reception, Blackburn Tourist Office, art galleries where the painting is being displayed and the appeal chairmen.

The SuperScan money is being raised to buy a life-saving Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scanner for the people of East Lancashire, to be housed at Blackburn Royal Infirmary. It will provide a way of detecting serious and potentially fatal conditions that escape normal diagnosis, like cancer and multiple sclerosis, and is also excellent at pinpointing sports injuries, cartilage tears in the knee joint, bone and tissue damage and fractures not visible on ordinary x-rays.

Thanks go to those who have pledged their support. Donations banked into the account this week include:

£56 Blackamoor Special School non-uniform day.

£200 in memory of Dr Stanley St C J Devlin from Mr and Mrs Hunt, Dorothy Keszler, Accrington and District Medical and Dental Society, D and M A Howard, Dr Harbinson, G Kelly, Major J Cobb, Mr and Mrs R E Tayleforth, Mr Kirk, J Turner, B Price, J K Haworth and Dr and Mrs Manuel.

£5 in memory of Tommy McManus, from Mr and Mrs Hadfield.

£20 Mrs Marsden.

£76 anonymous.

£533 from Christmas card sales.

£239 from Penguins Swims

£305 in memory of Doris Waterworth, from Mrs Haworth, CJ Yorks, Mr and Mrs Metcalfe and B Price.

£5 B Johnson.

£86 LET snowflakes promotion.

£30 from Mrs D Slater sale of toys.

£282 from lapel badges.

£10 in memory of Mr R Coughlin from Mrs Bearder.

£25 in memory of Mr M Scott from Miss Platt.

£20 in memory of K Dickens from Jin, Kathleen Pickup and Pam.

£10 in memory of P Arkwright from Mr and Mrs Parker.

£20 in memory of C Walton, from N N Bibby

£5 in memory of Thomas Clarkson, from Richard Haydock

£40 from Leamington Road Baptist Church Women's League, Blackburn.

£313 from sales of Christmas cards.

£20 from Mr and Mrs Heap.

£20 in memory of Edna Little, from BRI League of Friends.

£86 from a promotion Snowflakes offer at the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

£20 in memory of Clifford Walton from R and D Grimshaw.

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