TAUNTON Deane MP Rebecca Pow and Wellington WI group founder and president Karen Janas, who was nominated by the community, will switch on the Christmas lights at The Emporium Somerset today (Thursday).

The HOPE choir will perform a selection of Christmas songs at the store in Mantle Street and collect for the charity SURE. Mince pies and prosecco will be on offer in exchange for a donation to SURE. The event will run from 6-9pm with the lights switch-on at 6.15pm and the Hope Choir performing from 7pm.

Cato Cooper, co-owner of The Emporium, said: “We are delighted to have Rebecca and Karen doing the honours for us and switching on our Christmas lights.

“We put out a call to the community to nominate someone who they felt deserved to be a VIP for the event and we received lots of nominations for Karen as she does such great work in the community and puts lots of time and effort into the local Wellington WI group.”

SURE is a registered, independent charity based in Taunton. Its objective is to raise funds to help provide top class cancer diagnosis and treatment at the Cancer Centre known as the Beacon Centre at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.

The charity has so far donated more than £1.8 million of equipment to the centre. SURE is currently aiming to raise £500,000 by March 2017 to purchase a new Big Bore CT Scanner/Simulator to replace the previous scanner purchased by the charity.