What’s your legacy?

Do you want to help improve cancer treatment? Pledge to leave a gift in your Will to Cancer Research UK and help keep the breakthroughs coming

Would you like to do something extraordinary in your lifetime? Cancer Research UK has pledged to be an unstoppable force in the fight against cancer, but without the support of people like you, its life-saving research simply wouldn’t be possible.

You might have a loved one who has cancer, cared for a cancer patient, or even had cancer yourself, so will know first-hand just how vital this research can be. To make a difference, you could pledge to leave a gift in your Will to Cancer Research UK. You could help the charity continue its life changing work and transform the lives of hundreds of people across the UK.

Gifts in Wills fund more than a third of the charity’s research. They help the charity accelerate progress, develop kinder and more effective treatments, and help detect cancer earlier. If you decide to leave a legacy gift, the process is very straightforward. Simply request a Gifts in Wills guide to find out how you can donate, or you could use Cancer Research UK’s Free Will Service that allows you to write or update a simple Will for free.

And, leaving a cash gift isn’t the only option. For example, you could leave a percentage share of your estate or a specific gift (like jewellery or a property).

Read on to discover some of the groundbreaking research the charity is doing right now thanks to the support of people like you.

Pioneering breakthroughs

Our genes not only tell us about our ancestry, they also give clues about the future, too. Take breast cancer: one in seven women in the UK will develop the disease during their lifetimes, and researchers think that around 5-10% of these cases are caused by an inherited faulty gene, such as BRCA1 and BRCA2. By looking for these mutated genes, we can tell whether someone has a ‘high risk’ of developing cancer in the future.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers affecting women in the western world, so by leaving a legacy gift you could really help transform the way we treat and diagnose the disease for future generations. At the University of Cambridge, Professor Antonis Antoniou is working on just that. Using funding from

Researchers believe that around 5-10% of breast cancer cases are caused by an inherited faulty gene

You might be identified as being a ‘high risk’ for breast cancer by looking at factors such as your family history

Cancer Research UK, he’s developed a new computer programme called BOADICEA. This highly complex programme looks at risk factors for breast cancer (such as obesity and alcohol intake) as well as genetic data and mammography findings, to calculate a patient’s risk of developing the disease. It’s early days, but in the future this work could help ensure women get the care that’s right for them.

Pledge to leave a gift in your Will to help beat cancer for future generations. To find out more or to request a Gifts in Wills guide visit cruk.org/pledge or call 0800 077 6644

Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), and the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247)