BANK staff will be making a splash for cash tonight, in honour of a brave toddler battling rare eye cancer.

Walter Rappe-White, who turns two this week, has spent much of his life fighting retinoblastoma, which affects only one in 20,000 children.

The cancer returned just before Christmas and Walter has now lost his right eye, but he is currently free of the cancer and his family is trying to raise thousands of pounds for the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust (CHECT).

Walter’s dad Billy White and grandmother Gill Crook are from Copmanthorpe, and Gill’s former colleagues at Halifax Bank in Tadcaster will tonight try to swim ten miles in two hours, to raise £500 for CHECT.

Ten staff will undertake the challenge at Tadcaster Swimming Baths from 8pm to 10pm, aiming to complete 64 lengths each. Everything they raise will be matched by Halifax, taking the total target to £1,000.

Throughout March, Halifax staff have also been selling books and cakes every Friday for the charity.

Gill said: “The cancer returned just before Christmas and it was very traumatic for us all but since the operation, Walter has been fine.

"We have come to terms with it now and the cancer in that eye has now gone, which can only be a good thing.”

Walter has since had a prosthetic eye fitted in his right eye and must undergo monthly checks until he is five or six years old, in case the cancer returns in his left eye.

He lives in Sweden with dad Billy and mum Christin, and was diagnosed only thanks to a test that is routinely given to Swedish children but is not carried out in the UK.

Rebecca Morgan, one of the staff at the Halifax in Tadcaster, said: "We like to  support local charities and this year we chose the CHECT, because Gill is a friend and it is a quite un-known charity.

"We hope to raise £1,000 all together".