Generous Telegraph & Argus readers are getting behind our latest and largest campaign ever - to raise £1.5 million for a state-of-the-art cochlear implant centre at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

We started the Listening for Life Appeal just a week ago and already the money is beginning to roll in.

On Saturday we reported how the business community was backing the appeal with the Kirkgate Shopping Centre in Bradford donating £500 and now individual donations are boosting the appeal.

Dozens of cheques from kind-hearted readers have been gratefully received - including one individual donation of £2,000.

Community groups and churches are also lending their support with Harden, Wilsden and Cullingworth Charity Group donating £1,000 and Low Moor Wesley Reform Church giving the appeal £131, which parishioners raised at their harvest festival event.

Brian Nuttney, T&A deputy editor, said: "It is fantastic that once again the people of Bradford and the district have responded so quickly to help others in need.

"These efforts are greatly appreciated and are a credit to the people of this area. The Listening For Life campaign is off to a wonderful start and that is all down to the generosity and kindness of our readers who are proving once again that they are very special people in a very special place."

The money is needed to build a new purpose-built centre for the Yorkshire Cochlear Implant Service, at Bradford Royal Infirmary Since 1990 the service at BRI has given the gift of hearing to 400 patients, including babies and children, who were profoundly deaf, literally transforming their lives.

The service now performs around ten per cent of all implant operations in England but with this success and increasing numbers of referrals from across Yorkshire, it is now bursting at the seams.

It needs to build a purpose-built centre, in the grounds of BRI, which will house everything under one roof, making it the only centre of this kind in the UK.

There will be plenty of space in the new building, both for staff and for the patients. There will also be a training suite in which to provide courses for professionals, people with implants and parents and family members. It will have sophisticated sound-proofed testing rooms for adults and children and children's play areas and assessment rooms.

The centre will also need a range of specialist equipment, for assessing patients and supporting them after implants.