MARIE Curie Cancer Care fears it may lose hundreds of pounds, because of a shortage of volunteers.

The cancer care charity holds its national Daffodil Appeal, which is sponsored by Yellow Pages, in March, to raise funds to provide one-to-one nursing care for terminally ill people in their own home.

The charity aims to boost its coffers through collections in supermarkets, where fabric daffodil badges are exchanged for donations.

But extra volunteers are needed to cover the collection sites that have been secured in Trafford this year - to prevent the charity missing out on donations.

Hannah Taylor, Marie fundraiser, said: "We have some truly wonderful volunteers who give their time to collect each year, but we need more of them to cover the collections. We're really lucky in Trafford that the supermarkets have been so generous in offering us dates to collect - we just want to make sure we make the most of this opportunity to raise much needed funds for cancer care in Trafford."

She added: "We would like to appeal to everyone in the community to give us just two hours of their time this March to help collect in a supermarket. We supply a full kit, and the reaction you get from the general public is wonderful. Every two hours you give is worth around £100 to the charity - that's almost a full night of one-to-one care to a terminally ill person, giving them the chance to be in their own home, with their family around them for their final days. Please call the local fundraising office on 0161 255 2809 if you can help."

cgriffin@messengergrp.co.uk