A WOMAN who wanted to raise £10,000 for a breast care unit is celebrating after she reached her goal.

Barbara Osborne raised nearly £2,000 through a Valentine's night ball held at the Dudsbury Golf Club on Christchurch Road, Ferndown.

Barbara, who works for Christopher Batten Estate Agents, had also raised £8,000 through donations and a ladies' night held in Wimborne in November.

And her boss Christopher Batten added the final few hundred pounds so she could hit the target.

The money will go to the breast care unit at Poole Hospital.

Barbara set herself the target as a way of marking her 10th year as a survivor, having been diagnosed with breast cancer twice, the first time just after she had lost her son in a road accident.

She told the Daily Echo: "I'm delighted. I did the figures with my sister.

"Then I think it hit home that I had done it."

Barbara said she had feared having to hold a number of car boot sales to raise the cash but she hadn't needed to.

"We did one before Christmas. We were telling people we would stop singing carols if they paid us! That raised £150."

Barbara said her boss, her colleagues, and the public at large had been very supportive.

"The people of Wim-borne, the shopkeepers and everybody, it has been really wonderful how people have rallied around with donations and prizes," she said.

"Even on Valentine's night one of the jewellers gave us a nine-carat gold necklace with cultured pearls, earrings and a ring for the auction for the ball. The ball was such a good evening. I was really worried about numbers but they came in. I want to thank everybody who supported me, including the Echo."

Hospital staff are now discussing how best to spend the money.

The donated cash comes on top of £5,000 Barbara and her family has already raised for the hospital, which included her husband Ian completing the Three Peaks challenge, to mark what would have been their late son Michael's 18th birthday.