MORE than £2million was left to Cancer Research UK in the wills of Suffolk residents in a 12-month period, latest figures show.The charity said residents in the Ipswich area had pledged more than £2m in wills during the financial year 2005-6.

MORE than £2million was left to Cancer Research UK in the wills of Suffolk residents in a 12-month period, latest figures show.

The charity said residents in the Ipswich area had pledged more than £2m in wills during the financial year 2005-6.

This had helped fund the vital research of more than 3,000 doctors, nurses and scientists across the UK.

Cancer Research UK said legacies or gifts left in wills were extremely important to the charity sector which receives about a third of its income - £1.5billion in 2005 - in this way.

Almost half of Cancer Research UK's work is funded by legacies.

Paul Farthing, director of legacies at Cancer Research UK, said: “Leaving a gift to charity is a simple yet impactful way for anyone to support a good cause.

“The money left to us in legacies - around £130 m - funded almost half of our research last year, enabling us to safeguard the charity's vital research into the causes and treatments of all forms of cancer.”

More than one in three people in UK will develop cancer at some point in their lives and more than 24,000 people are diagnosed across the East of England every year.

Cancer Research UK said the good news is that more people are surviving the disease thanks to earlier detection, more effective diagnosis and improved treatments made possible by ongoing research into cancer.

More than 100 Cancer Research UK supporters attended a lunch reception at Hintlesham Hall Hotel recently to discover more about the impact legacies have had by funding research nationally and locally.

Supporters were joined by Dr Julie Sharp, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, who spoke about the charity's pioneering work to beat cancer and about clinical trials.

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