When grandfather Eric Saffin was given life-saving cutting edge treatment for a rare cancer he was determined to make restoration to the NHS.

Now he is celebrating a fundraising appeal to provide a vital piece of equipment for Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, passing the £1-million barrier.

The CT simulator and radiotherapy quality assurance equipment which the money will buy will save 1,200 patients a year having to travel to Bristol for treatment.

The simulator, which arrives next month, will be used in the new £20-million beacon cancer centre which opens in May. It will include an 18-bed inpatient ward, 22-bed haematology and chemotherapy day ward and employ 100 staff. An open day for the public is planned for May 6 and patients who have radiotherapy treatment planned at Bristol will be sent to Taunton instead over the summer.

Mr Saffin, 80, is treasurer and general factotum of the Sure appeal. The success of the charity is even more remarkable because it has a committee of just six and only a small band of volunteers.

One of its fundraising efforts resulted in the biggest collection of 5p coins in the world – 400,000, or £20,000.

Mr Saffin was only the 12th person in the world to be diagnosed with a rare facial cancer. He was treated at University College Hospital in London where three years ago surgeon Nicholas Kalavresos performed an operation that saw Mr Saffin lose his left eye and most of the left side of his face. The tissue was replaced with tissue from his back using a remarkable technique that saw it travel complete with blood supply through a tunnel surgeons made in his body.

He was also given a prosthetic eye by experts at Moorfields Hospital, in London. The perfect replica of his own eye fits on a plastic shell attached to his spectacles.

Mr Saffin said yesterday: "You can imagine how delighted everyone involved with Sure is that we have passed this milestone. The public have been very generous. We are carrying on fundraising because when they built the new centre they built bunkers to hold the radiotherapy machines, and they built three, even though only two were needed now to ensure that another bunker is there for future needs.

"They thought that the third would not be needed until 2015 but now we know it will be needed by the end of 2010 because of the increase in the number of cases of cancer. We have already promised a donation to that machine."

Although Sure has not seen a drop in donations so far during the economic crisis, fundraisers recognise times are tough. But Mr Saffin said: "Cancer is something that has touched virtually every family, so we are hoping support will continue."