A Pembroke Dock optician has helped raise over £7,000 for a charity that provides support and treatment to people and families dealing with cancer in Wales.

Specsavers in Dimond Street joined forces with fellow Specsavers stores across Wales to launch a campaign to raise £5,000 for Velindre Cancer Care last month, but its fundraising efforts helped smash the target.

The campaign culminated in a charity dinner at the Vale Resort hosted by international rugby referee Nigel Owens and attended by Blues and Wales star Jamie Roberts, and saw signed rugby memorabilia auctioned off to raise money for the charity.

Gary Owen, director of Specsavers Pembroke Dock, said: "When we launched this campaign, we knew our staff were keen to raise as much as possible, but the response from everyone - including customers - blew us away; it was fantastic. To not only reach the target we set of £5,000, but to raise a significant amount more is a credit to everyone that has made a donation and all that have worked so hard to raise funds and awareness in store.

"It is also a testament to the wonderful work that Velindre does and what a great cause this is for. Unfortunately, most of us are affected by cancer at some point in our life, so were just pleased to be able to support them in any way we can through this donation."

The money raised will go towards helping Velindre continue to provide support and care to cancer patients and their families.

Velindre Cancer Centre is the largest non-surgical cancer hospital in Wales, providing radiotherapy, chemotherapy and other specialised anti-cancer treatments for over half the people diagnosed with cancer in Wales. On average, Velindre Cancer Centre provides care, treatment and support to over 130,000 out patients and day cases every year.

According to statistics from Cancer Research UK, one in three people will be diagnosed with cancer at some stage in their lives, although more people survive cancer than ever before thanks to early detection and better treatments.

Andrew Morris, head of fundraising at Velindre Cancer Centre, said: "We'd like to thank Specsavers and their customers for their incredible support in raising such a huge amount of money, especially in this difficult economic climate, which will go a long way to helping support people who are affected by cancer in Wales."