STAFF and customers from the Bradford-based supermarket chain Morrisons have smashed through the £1 million funding barrier just nine months into a charity partnership with Sue Ryder care.

The figure signals the most successful start to a charitable appeal in the company’s 115-year history.

Sue Ryder is using some of the money to expand community services at its Manorlands Hospice in Oxenhope, alongside developing its first-ever online support network where families coping with end-of-life care needs can receive dedicated support and advice 24-hours a day. New services at Manorlands thanks to the ‘Raise a Smile’ partnership are set to include seven-day community nurse specialists, a neurological specialist, and the expansion of rehabilitation therapy and complementary therapy services, with many now due to begin in 2015.

Lizzie Procter, director at Manorlands, said: “We’re overwhelmed by the incredible sum of money raised for Sue Ryder in such a short space of time, we’re delighted to be able to use some of these funds to expand our community services.