The Telegraph & Argus Bradford Crocus Cancer Appeal has been given a boost at the start of 2014 with news of a fantastic £10,000 donation.

Representatives of The Grace Trust visited Bradford University’s Institute of Cancer Therapeutics (ICT) – which will benefit from our £1 million fundraising campaign – to hand over a cheque to director of the facility, Professor Laurence Patterson.

The charitable trust was formed in 1968 and offers humanitarian aid and assistance in connection with worldwide natural disasters, supports education, works to alleviate poverty and helps medical research organisations.

The donation adds to a £20,000 gift from the Kirkby Foundation, which is run by husband and wife team Stuart and Janet Brown.

The money will go towards buying the university’s ICT a mass spectrometer, which will allow researchers to study the role of protein in cancer ten times faster than before.

It is hoped this state-of-the-art machine could hold the breakthrough to developing less toxic and more targeted tumour-blasting cancer treatments which will benefit patients across the world.

Tim Dallow, a trustee of the Grace Trust, which was set up by his father, said: “The Crocus Appeal has got a great little team behind it and they applied for a grant from us.

“The Crocus Appeal is something we picked out because it would be great to think we have helped buy this equipment.

“We were taken around the ICT and we were really impressed with the facility.”

Last month, we announced we had smashed through the £100,000 mark after a successful telethon at Bradford University and we are now well on the way to hitting £200,000.

A spokesman for the appeal said: “This £10,000 donation from The Grace Trust is a massive boost to the appeal and we’re extremely grateful. The support we have received since we announced the appeal last year has been fantastic and 2014 looks like it will be even better.”

The T&A Bradford Crocus Cancer Appeal is being run with the university, the Sovereign Health Care Charitable Trust and Yorkshire Cancer Research.

Meanwhile, shoppers at Asda on Cemetery Road can vote to support the appeal by placing green coins given to them at the checkout in the T&A Bradford Crocus Cancer Appeal box.