We’re taking a look at the work the Adver does in the community to shine a light on the importance of local stories and why the town should support us.

When Great Western Hospital charity Brighter Futures launched its radiotherapy appeal in 2015, the Adver backed the campaign from the off with weekly features and news articles showcasing the fundraisers who shaved their heads, ran marathons and threw themselves out of planes in aid of appeal.

The charity wanted to raise £2.9m to fit out a brand new radiotherapy unit, sparing Swindon cancer patients a 70-mile round trip to Oxford’s Churchill Hospital.

That massive target was reached three weeks before Christmas in 2018, with the news announced on our front page. Adver readers helped raise thousands of pounds to put towards the campaign.

And we helped the hospital raise £175,000 by Christmas that year in order to buy new state-of-the-art incubators for premature tots in the special care baby unit.

Brighter Futures head of fundraising Cat Newman said yesterday: “You’re our local paper, you’re our mouthpiece to our local community. Everything we’ve done you’ve really supported and got behind.

“As a small charity we don’t have any marketing budget or advertising budget. We’re really reliant on the relationship we have with the Adver.

“You’ve given a voice to our stories and shared them across the years.

“With the radiotherapy appeal it goes without saying w your readers massively got behind us. “

She added: “The amount of money raised from the coupons in the paper was staggering.”

Editor Pete Gavan said: “We’ve been covering our communities for generations but we’ve never faced a threat like we do today.

“The coronavirus outbreak has significantly hit out revenues and newspaper sales as we need your support to make sure we’re here for generations to come.

“The work my reporters do week in week out cannot come for free online – quality journalism must be paid for. And so that’s why we’ve got our new digital subscriptions.

“If you value local journalism and its future I’d encourage you to take one out. it’s just £1 per week. Thank you.”

To take out a digital subscription, visit swindonadvertiser.co.uk/subscribe.

It costs £52 a year and buys you unlimited access to Adver online articles and an advertisement-light version of the website.

If you are interested in getting the paper delivered to your door, we’re offering the chance to get it delivered free of any delivery charges for six weeks.

Call 0800 953 0227 to find out more detail.