Together we will beat cancer
Pledge to leave a gift in your Will, like Jacky, to help fund Cancer Research UK’s life-saving work
Back in 1994 Jacky Merrison was first diagnosed with cancer, aged 52, following a routine mammogram as part of the breast cancer screening programme. ‘Since then I have had quite a journey with cancer,’ she says, having fought and survived three types of cancer over the past two decades. ‘The drugs and other treatments, like surgery, have given me a better quality of life – and I have Cancer Research UK to thank.’
Following her first diagnosis of breast cancer, a few months later Jacky had a biopsy and a lumpectomy in her right breast. A year later, cancer was found in her left breast, which required a mastectomy. During a reconstruction follow-up appointment, Jacky’s plastic surgeon noticed a mark above her breast that turned out to be a malignant skin cancer and had to be removed. ‘In June 1996 I went for another check-up for my breast cancer, and they found a lump under my right arm – in the end I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma,’ says Jacky. ‘What followed was constant check-ups,’ she explains. It was during one of these check-ups that Jacky discovered cancer was now in her stomach and throat, and that she would need chemotherapy. Jacky’s doctor suggested that she took rituximab, a drug that was developed with the support of Cancer Research UK. ‘I thought I was going to lose my life, but instead that drug has given me my life back as well as a better quality of living for the last eight years,’ says Jacky. ‘Now I’d really like to help people who are in a similar situation to me. I want to leave a gift in my Will to Cancer Research UK to give other people the same chance that I have had for a better quality of life.’
Cancer Research UK is focused on achieving its ambition of seeing three in four people surviving their cancer for 10 years or more by 2034. Gifts in Wills fund a third of Cancer Research UK’s research, meaning that every pledge that is made today helps to secure life-saving research so that more people like Jacky survive cancer in the future. Pledge a gift in your Will using its Free Will Service and leave a lasting legacy so that future generations won’t have to fear cancer.