ALMOST £1,000 was raised for the Cheshire East mayor’s charities at the Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain’s annual fundraiser luncheon.

The showmen of Cheshire, Lancashire and North Wales gathered with civic dignitaries at Cranage Hall.

The guild exists both to support those who work at traditional fairs and to raise funds for good causes.

At the lunch, £960 was raised for Cheshire East Mayor George Walton’s chosen charities, East Cheshire Hospice and the Congleton and Crewe and Nantwich divisions of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA).

Clr Walton, of Blackhill Lane, Knutsford, said: “I am delighted and surprised to receive this substantial donation today.

“I did not come expecting any donation and it will go to two very worthy causes.”

Fiona Bruce MP added: “I have been enormously impressed at the charitable work of the Showmen’s Guild, in particular of the Showmen’s Children’s Charity, which in the past 18 months alone has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for medical treatment for children to fill a gap where there is no NHS funding.

“Its latest challenge is to raise more than a quarter of a million pounds to send a 14-year-old girl called Mollie overseas for urgently needed treatment for cancer of the nervous system, which cannot be obtained in this country.”