Leave a legacy
By pledging to leave a gift in your Will, you’ll help Cancer Research UK continue to transform lives for future generations
“I will fight cancer all my life, and I want to continue to fight it when I’m gone”
Learnings from the past are invaluable in shaping the present and informing the future – and it’s this guiding principle that underpins Cancer Research UK’s life-saving work. Drawing on insights gathered over hundreds of years, the charity’s skilled scientists and researchers are working towards preventing, diagnosing and treating more than 200 types of cancer.
Discoveries throughout history have helped us to make incredible progress in the fight against cancer. In the 18th century, for instance, physician John Hunter proposed that some types of the disease may be curable with surgery, an idea that has subsequently led to life-saving operations. And it was even further back, in the 17th century, that the link between tobacco and health was first made, helping us to understand how we can prevent lung cancer today.
With support from people like you, Cancer Research UK has made some life-changing breakthroughs in more recent years too, from the introduction of radiotherapy to the development of new cancer drugs. One in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime*, but by pledging to leave a gift in your Will, you’ll be playing an integral part in helping the charity ensure more people are surviving their disease than ever before.
Success stories
Cancer Research UK supports the work of more than 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses, all of whom work tirelessly to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer. Indeed, the organisation is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research, influencing and information.
Cancer Research UK has achieved some incredible successes in recent years, including its research helping to prove the value of cervical screening, which now prevents thousands of deaths every year. The charity’s work has also helped double breast cancer survival, and it was a key player in the development of radiotherapy too, which now benefits more than 130,000 patients every year in the UK.
With your help, the charity is determined to achieve its ambition to see three in four people survive their cancer by 2034.
The gift of life
It’s thanks to generous supporters like you that Cancer Research UK is the only independently funded body to research more than 200 cancer types. In fact, more than a third of funding comes from gifts in Wills, making them a vital part of the fight against cancer.
With your gifts, Cancer Research UK will be able to continue planning and investing in research projects that have huge potential in terms of beating cancer. So, by pledging to leave a gift in your Will, you’ll not only be playing an integral role in helping to change lives now, but also for generations to come.
Jo, Pledger
Recent research based on early insights about DNA has shown that some forms of cancer are caused by an inherited mutation in a gene. For Cancer Research UK campaign ambassador Jo, this information has been crucial in helping him to look out for his children.
“My wife Sue was diagnosed with a very rare cancer called pheochromocytoma in 1993. We were told that she had six months to live, which was very hard,” says Jo. “Fortunately, Sue was able to have radioactive treatment, which allowed her to live a normal life. I looked after her until she sadly passed away in December 2003.
“In 2010, we found out that the faulty SDH-B gene that had caused Sue’s cancer was hereditary, and that my four children should have a blood test to see if they had inherited it. My two eldest children did not have the gene, but my twins, Jennie and James, did.
“James had five tumours near his abdomen, which were operated on and removed. Jennie had one tumour in her jugular vein, which was impossible to operate on, but in 2014 she underwent radioactive treatment, which appears to have stopped it from growing. They both continue to be screened on a regular basis.”
Since Sue’s diagnosis, Jo has been doing everything he can to support Cancer Research UK, including pledging to leave a gift in his Will. “I am passionate about helping to beat cancer and I hope my legacy encourages people to realise they can also help scientists to find cures for this terrible disease. I will fight cancer all my life, and I want to continue to fight it when I’m gone,” Jo says.