The Telegraph & Argus Bradford Crocus Cancer Appeal has achieved a major milestone by hitting the £100,000 mark, it can be revealed today.

Your generosity has helped us hit the landmark figure only six months after we started our most ambitious appeal in more than a decade, with a telethon at Bradford University pushing the total across the line.

The final figure for the annual fundraiser, which saw a team of 32 students contact about 2,000 graduates asking for donations and pledges over five weeks, is still being counted up.

But the appeal total now stands at £100,000, which means we are now one tenth of the way to our £1 million target.

We want to buy Bradford University a new mass spectrometer, which will allow scientists at its Institute of Cancer Therapeutics (ICT) study the role of protein in cancer ten times quicker than before.

The university already has a world-class reputation for its work in cancer research, with its ‘smart bomb’ tumour-blasting treatment hitting the international headlines. We hope the new high-tech machine will help researchers develop new, less toxic cancer treatments which will transform the lives of people blighted by the illness across the world. We are running the campaign with the university, Yorkshire Cancer Research and the Sovereign Health Care Charitable Trust.

Professor Laurence Patterson, director of the ICT, said: “The university’s alumni have shown exceptional generosity in support of our appeal for new proteomics equipment.

"I’m told the telethon has raised more funds than any previously carried out. The cash raised has significantly added to the £1m required to purchase our state-of-the-art mass spectrometer.

“Thank you to all the past students of Bradford University and all those Bradford folk who have tirelessly campaigned on behalf of the cancer medicines discovery research within the ICT.”

Victoria Collins, development officer at the university, said: “This year’s telephone appeal has been the university’s most successful yet, with participation levels from our alumni community at their highest.

"Thanks to the generosity shown by our graduates, we have now hit an important milestone in the T&A Bradford Crocus Cancer Appeal which has significantly contributed to our £1m target.”

 

OTHER FUNDRAISING:

Some of the ways the money has been rolling in...
*Students at Bradford University helped raise a fantastic £2,150 by holding a bag-pack at three Morrisons supermarkets in Bradford.
*Bradford Council at the Bradford West Area Co-ordinators office at Lawcroft House Police Station raised £300 for two charities, including the Telegraph & Argus Bradford Crocus Cancer Appeal.
*Bilton Medical Centre collected £280 for the appeal by selling sugar-free cakes on World Diabetes Day.
*Grandad Thomas Woods, 86, was the oldest person to take part in Yorkshire Cancer Research’s cycle event, The Dales Rider, and raised £525.
*Members of the Unite trade union at Bradford University donated £100.
*Great-great grandad Eddie Streetly celebrated his 90th birthday this year, but asked friends and family to “gift” his presents to the appeal – raising £170.
*Bradford firms also gave their support – Michael Ziff, boss of Bradford-based shoe chain Barratts, pledged £500, while Balbir Panesar, of PEC Building Services, donated £100.