FRED Dudley is battling cancer for the third time. But instead of sitting around feeling sorry for himself he is helping to brighten up the lives of other cancer sufferers.

The 74-year-old tends to the flowers in the grounds next to the oncology unit at Nottingham City Hospital.

He and other WRVS volunteers are responsible for 200 giant planters and tubs which are overlooked by the wards.

After bowel and eye cancer, Mr Dudley, from Lambley, is now fighting lung cancer.

He says his green-fingered hobby helps him cope with the disease.

"I find that it helps me and I forget all my problems," said Mr Dudley, who is married to Christine, 71.

"I stay positive and I have a good wife. All the professionals I have seen have been absolutely first class."

Mr Dudley has raised £425 since January for the Post's Maggie's appeal by selling cut flowers and plants – donated by Bland Bros Nurseries in Lambley – to visitors at oncology outpatients.

Mr Dudley is a committee member of Lambley Village Show, which this year will be raising money for the appeal for a cancer caring centre, currently standing at £423,366.

Gardeners are invited to enter blooms, fruit and vegetables in the show in the village hall on September 5.

Trophies will also be awarded for the best jams and cakes in the cookery category and for crafts and photography.

Organiser Anne Harrad said: "Because Fred Dudley has been helped by Maggie's over the past couple of years we felt it would be a particularly good charity to donate to."

Anyone who wants to enter should turn up on the day between 9am and 11am.

Emma Critchley, Maggie's community fund-raiser for Nottingham, will be opening the event.

A £1,500 donation to the appeal is winging its way from Boots workers who took part in a charity bike ride from Notts to Skegness.

The team included Mick Stretton, 50, whose wife Maggie, 60, died from cancer last November.

Mick and colleagues from D80 at Boots' main site in Beeston, set off on the 80-mile cycle ride from Bingham.

Mick, from Strelley, said: "The bike ride went well. I finished half an hour after the main group but made it OK."

Businesses at the Evening Post's Business Awards ceremony raised £1,320 in a raffle.

Maggie's representative Jill Steele, who attended the event, said: "The toastmaster spoke about Maggie's and there was a lot of goodwill in the room and genuine interest in the Maggie's Nottingham campaign."

A special ale created by Castle Rock Brewery in Nottingham will be drunk by fund-raiser Nigel Skill to toast his arrival in John o'Groats.

The managing director of Skills Holidays will be setting off on a 1,000-mile bike ride from Land's End next Sunday.

He'll crack open a bottle of the one-off beer Spoke Too Soon at the end of the trek.

Keep up to date with the campaign at www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/maggies.

lynette.pinchess@nottighameveningpost.co.uk