In what was the first Hope fundraiser since 2019 due to the COVID-19 lockdown, all funds raised will be donated to the Daffodil Cottage's high cost drug fund.

BoxGrove owner and one of the event's organisers, Ben Fry, was blown away by the generosity of the Bathurst community.

"It's only early estimates with money still rolling in, but we've managed to raise $80,000 at least," he said.

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"We'll have a final figure in the coming days but $80,000 is just down to the generosity to Bathurstians. We know cancer touches everyone and that was really felt in the room last night."

An auction was held on the evening, which made up a large portion of the donated money, with Mr Fry impressed at how well the smaller items sold.

"Of course we had our gold, silver and bronze sponsors, which come on every year. But the deep pockets of some community members last night was just outstanding," he said.

"For example, you've got Ryan Cooney who buys a small crochet rug for $3000 and then donates that rug to Daffodil Cottage.

"Grant Denyer, our MC, signed a $50 Family Feud board games and then offered to host a Family Feud at your house. That sold for $5000 and then he sold another for $5000.

"It was the smaller items that got the bigger coin. In saying that, we sold a pair of electric bikes for $7000. We also had a lot of smaller donations and bequests that came in.

"Everyone dug deep. Great food, great dancing and everyone took on the event, which was great."

Mr Fry believes the charity market is saturated this year, which made him even more surprised at how much Hope was able to raise.

"I'm really surprised. The charity market this year is extremely saturated and for a good reason because there's a lot of good causes around," he said.

"There's also been a few person-specific causes, with people suffering from different conditions, which have had charity fundraisers put to their names.

"It was really interesting to see the Bathurst community dig deep for the cottage and really built on what we've built, having raised $50,000 at our last event [in 2019]. To hit $80,000 plus, I'm gob smacked."

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