ALTON Community Centre's ailing Day Care Centre has been saved.

Members and staff have expressed a big "thank you" to the local community which has come up trumps by raising over £16,500 - a sum which will keep the facility afloat for the next two years.

The funding has been raised in response to an appeal, launched in January this year by the Alton Herald with a donation of £1,000.

Since then the money has been flooding in with one benefactor from Beech making a significant contribution to seal the first year's funding and pave the way for a more positive future.

Run by the Alton Community Association (ACA) management committee, lack of funding forced a major reduction in service from January 1 but with it came a determination to fight to halt the decline and bring the provision back up to strength.

Set up four years ago to provide intermediate care for senior citizens in Alton and the surrounding villages, the Day Care Centre seeks to enhance quality of life.

According to facilitator, Mary Sheehan, it not only enables members to spend a day away from the close confines of their own home, but to meet other people and to receive mental, social and physical stimulation.

The service also provides a period of respite for carers and family.

Up until this year the Day Care Centre had benefited from "start-up" grants and donations which had enabled the service to operate on three days a week.

While the Friday session for the mentally frail is still financed by the Friends of the Elderly, the remaining sources of funding have dried up.

According to ACA chairman, David Gay, the facility needs at least £6,000 per annum for each day to operate. From January one of the three days had been forced to cancel.

It was a devastating blow for members who were not prepared to sit back and let the service collapse around them.

They offered to increase their own personal contribution from £7 to £10 per session - the actual cost is £20 per member, but their ability to raise funds in other ways was limited, leaving them anxious about the future.

Now they are celebrating following an announcement that the success of their appeal will result in the re-opening of a third day as from Monday, July 1.

In breaking the news, Alton Community Centre manager Sheena Baker told The Herald that the funding will enable the centre to operate on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

She is delighted. "I would like to say a big thank you to everyone in Alton who has really taken the Day Care Centre to their hearts. It is fantastic, I didn't think we would get that sort of support."

It is a sentiment echoed by Mary Sheehan, assistant, Elaine Ward, and regular volunteer, Peter Robinson, and by members who can now rest easy in the knowledge that their service is safe, at least for the immediate future.

In addition, the reintroduction of a third day has opened up opportunities for new membership.

While over the past months the service has had to turn potential members away, it is now happy to open its doors and would welcome inquiries on 01420 85057.