A group of Newsquest employees have donated more than £1,300 to Operation Butterfly.

Between 50 and 60 employees from Newsquest’s south London office, home of the Sutton Guardian, invested part of their salaries throughout the year into the company’s Christmas Club fund.

The interest on the Christmas Club investment, £1,350, was generously donated to our campaign to help create a Butterfly Room, a cancer information and support centre at St Helier Hospital.

The room will provide a sanctuary for patients, their carers and families.

Denise Smith, from the Christmas Club committee, said: “The reason we chose Operation Butterfly was because we felt cancer touched everybody, every single family and since the newspaper was supporting it we thought it would be a good thing to support it too.

“I would defy anybody to say cancer is not something that affects most people. It does, and that’s why we decided to donate the money.”

So far, our campaign has received more than £6,300 in donations. With your help, the Sutton Guardian’s Operation Butterfly is looking to find the rest of the funds needed to reach £10,000 and make this project a reality.

To support our campaign online, join our Facebook group Operation Butterfly – Sutton Guardian.

We want to hear about any fundraising ideas you have to make this scheme real.

Email us at newsdesk@ suttonguardian.co.uk.

If you would like to make a donation, send cheques payable to Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, to Operation Butterfly, Unecol House, 819 London Road, North Cheam SM3 9BN.

For more information about the Butterfly Centre call 01372 735456.

Two Sutton Guardian reporters have decided to enter into the spirit of Operation Butterfly and will be running a half marathon in less than two weeks.

Ben Thompson and Matthew Knowles have somewhat foolishly agreed to run 13.1 miles in the Sussex Beacon half marathon on February 21.

Give what you can as it is unlikely this office will ever hear the end of it if they complete the course.

We now have the facility to donate online for the first time.

People who want to donate elerctronically can log on to our website and follow the link to the Virgin Money charity where your cash will go straight to the Butterfly Room funds.

To donate online go to http://uk.virginmoney giving.com/charities/ epsomandstheliernhs trust.