Noel Edmonds has praised the Exeter Express and Echo and its readers after they raised money for a new leukaemia unit.
He was speaking as building work began on the new unit at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
Echo readers played a big part in raising £500,000 for the project and Noel, who is a patron of the Exeter Leukaemia Fund, was quick to pay tribute.
He said: “It is thanks to Express and Echo readers that we’ve reached this stage. People in Exeter have been extraordinarily generous.”
The new unit has been built to replace the hospital’s Yarty Ward which had insufficient beds to cope with the amount of leukaemia cases.
There will be extended out-patient and day-patient facilities to monitor blood cancer cases.
Although the fund has raised a total of £1 million, a further £500,000 is still needed to fully equip the unit when it opens next year.
The newspaper’s drive to get local people into work has now found jobs for 2,000 people.
The scheme, run in partnership with the Employment Service and Action 4 Employment, was launched last year.
It aimed to get 1,000 people into work by the Millennium and reached its target two months early.
Since then, the campaign has continued and now Ian Wilson has become the 2,000th person to find a job.
The former factory worker has found work as a security guard at a local job centre.
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