Ribble Valley Cancer Research fund-raisers hit £3m. milestone

The Blackburn and Ribble Valley Local Committee of the charity organised house collections, in memoriam donations, a weekly quiz night and their annual Dinner at the Millstone event which raises on average £7,000 each year. Some volunteers are still supporting the committee now having started in 1959.

The group celebrated the milestone by being invited to visit the Cancer Research UK funded scientists based at Alderley Park in Macclesfield. They spent the day learning where the money they had raised had been spent. Head of volunteer fund-raising, Trudy Stammer, presented the committee with an engraved trophy to recognise their achievement.

Janet Bradley, committee secretary, said: “All our members are so chuffed! We feel very proud to know that our collective efforts and the generosity of our many supporters have contributed to the increase in survival rates and helped so many families faced with a cancer diagnosis. Seeing the work of the scientists at first hand was truly awe inspiring.”

Cancer Research UK Lancashire senior local fund-raising manager, Leah Mitchell, said: “We would like to say a huge thank you to the Blackburn and Ribble Valley Local Committee. We do not have many committees who have shown such outstanding dedication and have raised such an amazing amount of money for Cancer Research UK so we are truly very grateful for all that the volunteers do.

“Cancer Research UK receives no Government funding and relies entirely on the generosity and dedication of supporters such as the Blackburn and Ribble Valley Committee.”

Every year 42,100 people are diagnosed with cancer in the North West.

Last year, Cancer Research UK spent over £30m. in the North West on research which is helping more men, women and children to survive the disease.

Cancer survival rates have doubled since the 1970s and Cancer Research UK’s work has been at the heart of that progress. Thanks to advances in research, more people in the North West are surviving cancer than ever before. But to help even more people survive, Cancer Research UK needs everyone to act.