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Friday 26 Jan 2007

THANKS FOR DIGGING DEEP OVER CHRISTMAS

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£3,048 – that’s the staggering amount that big-hearted passengers at Manchester’s Piccadilly railway station donated to Cancer Research UK in just two days in the run up to Christmas, and both Network Rail and the charity want to say a great big ‘thank you’ to everyone who dug deep into their pockets. And the figure is likely to grow substantially because Cancer Research UK is Network Rail’s ‘charity of choice’ for 2006, chosen by the company’s employees. This means that the charity will receive a significant donation to boost the final figure. Not only did people give their money but thirteen people also became volunteers to help with the station collection, and another four came forward to the charity stand at the station to become future volunteers. Sara Rees, Corporate Partnerships Executive at Cancer Research UK said: "We are so grateful - this money will go towards our world-class research to help people with cancer. We send huge thanks to the local community for their outstanding generosity and support, and to Network Rail and the Manchester Piccadilly team for making the collection possible. Together we will beat cancer." Network Rail station manager Duncan Law added his thanks, saying: “We were pleased to work with Cancer Research UK and simply want to thank everyone who gave so generously. We are acutely aware that people have other calls on their finances at this time of year so we really do mean it when we say thank you.” The task of beating cancer is as urgent as ever, with one in three people getting the disease at some point in their lives. The most common cancers are breast, lung, bowel and prostate cancer. However, Cancer Research UK has played a leading role in many of the major breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer in the last 100 years. The charity has discovered new ways of treating cancer that together have saved hundreds of thousands of lives across the world. Thanks to research and improvements in the prevention, detection and treatment of cancer, survival rates have improved for nearly all cancers and seven out of ten children with cancer can now be cured. For further information about Cancer Research UK's work, visit www.cancerresearchuk.org.uk