Ipswich Hospital and Macmillan have thanked people for their “fantastic support” after £15,000 was raised in just a week for a new state-of-the-art cancer centre.

The appeal to raise £3.7million was only launched a matter of days ago but already people have been giving generously.

Macmillan Cancer Support is working with the hospital to create a unit that will bring together outpatient chemotherapy, oncology and haematology day services.

The money raised so far is being added to £250,000 committed by the Ipswich Hospital Charitable Trust and more than £770,000 from the Woolverstone Wish appeal, which was set up to raise funds to refurbish the current chemotherapy outpatient clinics and day-unit.

Mandy Jordan, fundraising manager for Macmillan in Suffolk, said: “When we launched this appeal we hoped that as many individuals, groups of friends, families, schools and businesses would play a part in helping us to fundraise for the The Woolverstone Macmillan Centre.

“During the first week of the appeal the people of Suffolk have shown us fantastic support, raising an amazing £15,000 in just one week.

“This is a great first step towards our target of £3.7 million and I’d like to thank everybody who has contributed so far.

“Anybody wishing to donate to the fundraising appeal can call Macmillan on 0300 1000 200 or visit the special Woolverstone Macmillan Centre appeal page www.macmillan.org.uk/ipswich.”

In addition to the services that will be offered, planned new chemotherapy suites will be able to treat 30 people at a time, more than double the current capacity of 12.

Jan Ingle, a spokeswoman for Ipswich Hospital, said: “It’s a been a mixture of people ringing the helpline and hearing about the appeal – people have organised events and wanted to give some money.

“It’s just amazing news, people’s generosity has completed beaten our expectations; it’s brilliant to have raised £15,000 in the first seven days.”

The new centre itself, which will be called the Woolverstone Macmillan Centre and is due to open in 2016, will be able to treat almost 21,000 people every year, more than double the current number.