Your campaigning T&A has spearheaded some of the most important appeals in the Bradford district which have helped transform the lives of thousands. By harnessing the support of our readers we have raised £1 million for a state-of-the-art hospital scanner, cleaned up the streets in our War On Litter campaign and boosted blood stocks by encouraging readers to give a pint of blood. As part of Local Newspaper Week, Mike Waites looks at some of the fantastic achievements made in a partnership between the T&A and you - our readers.

'THANKS A MILLION', ran the headline in the Telegraph & Argus to celebrate the success of the biggest cash appeal ever in the newspaper's history.

It summed up the amazing achievement of raising £1million in just 18 months for a Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

On January 22 - the day we hit our target - hospital bosses said the campaign could never have been so successful without the vital backing of the T&A and the many thousands of readers who dipped into their pockets or became involved in money-spinning events.

The fruits of so much hard work will be seen next month when the machine scans the first patients to benefit from the amazing pictures produced using MRI technology.

The Bradford Millennium Scanner Appeal really will have a lasting impact on people's lives for years to come in the Bradford district with thousands of people each year having their problems diagnosed more speedily and more accurately than ever before.

More than 500 stories have been written about the appeal - and of course we are still counting.

We covered everything from often very personal accounts by patients telling how MRI technology made sometimes life-saving differences.

Equally as important, we featured many fundraising events, letting people across the district know just when and where they could help with the campaign, and recording the sometimes weird and wacky ways people pitched in to help the effort.

The appeal was the biggest venture we have ever been involved in but thanks to your support it proved a huge success.

The fantastic history of generosity by T&A readers made it no surprise the response was so whole-hearted. Over the years we have highlighted many areas where we think help is needed - and you have responded.

Only today the newspaper was picking up a top award from the Royal National Lifeboat Institute for a T&A-backed campaign which raised £65,000 for an inshore lifeboat.

The people of Bradford have always given generously to the RNLI but our Bradford Centenary Lifeboat Appeal amazed the fundraisers.

One of the most dramatic fundraising successes was an appeal for ward 15 at Bradford Royal Infirmary in memory of Lynda Denbow, 45, of Baildon, who died of ovarian cancer.

It was Lynda's last wish that a shopping list she had drawn up of equipment be purchased for the ward at a cost £15,000.

We highlighted her plea - and the target was smashed in just nine weeks with £31,000 eventually collected.

The cancer ward has a special place in the hearts of readers and in 1990 major improvements were carried out thanks to the £50,000 Home from Home Appeal to transform its then gloomy and depressing surroundings.

It was a similar story when we set out to help the Manorlands Hospice at Oxenhope with our Raise the Roof campaign.

Well in excess of the £20,000 target was raised in 1989 which went towards re-roofing the extension to the Sue Ryder hospice.

The Extra Time Appeal in 1995 which kept the pioneering burns research unit at Bradford University up and running set out to raise £50,000.

This time the appeal had an international dimension - the work of the unit helps people with burns and scars not only in Bradford but around the world - and the appeal raised an astonishing £105,000.

Babies in the special care unit in Bradford more than benefited from our Save A Baby appeal in 1988 which set out to raise £50,000 for incubators. The response was so overwhelming more than £70,000 was collected.

We even put readers through their paces in 1993 in a Challenge for Children which sent hundreds of people across a tough assault course to raise more than £10,000 for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.