“If Dad was diagnosed with cancer today, it would be different. We would have had many more Christmases together.” – Margaret’s experience

This Christmas, Margaret Stevens from Great Ayton marks 49 years of helping to save lives in Yorkshire

Margaret is Chair of the Great Ayton local volunteer group, the longest-running group raising vital funds and awareness for Yorkshire Cancer Research. Thanks to the dedication of its members, the Great Ayton group has raised over £1.1 million for pioneering cancer research in Yorkshire, since it was first established in 1948.

As the festive season approaches, Margaret looks back on the moments that first inspired her decades of community fundraising and why, to this day, she remains ever committed to helping fund new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer in Yorkshire.  

Margaret first joined the Great Ayton local volunteer group in 1977, a year after her father, Len, passed away from prostate cancer.

Margaret said: “I was 29 and had three young children when my father was diagnosed. He hadn’t been very well for a while, but being a stoic gentleman, he never complained. He went to the doctor quietly, without telling my mother or me. It wasn’t until he came home after a hospital appointment that I realised something was very wrong.”

As Margaret recalls, cancer treatment and care, and the way people spoke about the disease, were very different back then. 

“I didn’t know what treatment my father had, or if the cancer had spread to other parts of his body. He felt it was best to keep everything hidden as he didn’t want to worry us.  It was so hard trying to explain to my children why their grandad wasn’t playing with them anymore.”

Just a year after Margaret’s father was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he sadly passed away, aged just 56.

“I remember coming home from a family holiday in August knowing he was very ill but never imagining it would be our last. He passed away just over a year later, in the September. The loss had a lasting impact on our whole family.”

Losing her father at such a young age inspired Margaret to help ensure others wouldn’t have to experience what she had. In 1977, she joined the Great Ayton Local Volunteer Group and gradually became more involved in its fundraising activities as she learnt more about the impact of the charity’s work in the region.

Margaret remembers feeling particularly inspired to champion the charity’s work after hearing talks by Professor Norman Maitland and Professor Jo Milner - two pioneering researchers from the University of York. Their groundbreaking work, funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research, led to major advancements in prostate and cervical cancer genetics.

Margaret has seen much of the vital progress made during the charity’s 100-year history, including improvements in bowel cancer treatment, the introduction of national lung cancer screening and more recently, groundbreaking genetic research to advance cancer prevention.  

Yet it’s also the experiences of those closest to her that continues to fuel her passion for cancer research in Yorkshire.  

One of Margaret’s closest friends, Anne, also a committed supporter of Yorkshire Cancer Research, was among the first people to be treated for bladder cancer using robotic surgery.

She said: “I remember the phone call between Anne and her surgeon so clearly. He explained that he could offer a new type of robotic surgery that would be less invasive and allow for a quicker recovery. I encouraged her to go for it, and I’m so glad she did.”  

Just three weeks after the surgery, Anne was able to return home and enjoy more moments of laughter and joy with Margaret, adding more precious time to their 50-year friendship.  

Margaret said: “This new type of surgery meant I was able to bring Anne home shortly after and for a long while, she was much better. Seeing first-hand how new innovations could benefit those closest to me reminded me why I was supporting the work of Yorkshire Cancer Research. The most important benefit of any cancer breakthrough is the extra time it gives someone, and the more chances to make memories with loved ones.”

Anne continued to support Yorkshire Cancer Research until she passed away in 2019, aged 81. Her legacy lives on in the charity’s work to discover new and better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, so more lives can be saved in the region and beyond.

This includes the IMProVE prostate screening trial, which aims to develop a more effective way to screen men at high risk of prostate cancer and investigate how a national screening programme for the disease could be introduced.

This year, in the charity’s 100th year, Margaret is supporting the new Yorkshire Cancer Research Christmas fundraising appeal For More Christmases Together. The appeal highlights how, with the help of supporters, pioneering cancer research in Yorkshire is giving people and their families more precious moments, and more Christmases together.  

One of those families is Russell McFarlane’s. Russell was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few days before Christmas last year. Thanks to early diagnosis and treatment, he and his family are looking forward to spending this Christmas together.  

Margaret said: “I have lost loved ones to cancer and seen others gain many more good years thanks to cancer research happening right here in Yorkshire. This is why I’ve supported Yorkshire Cancer Research for nearly five decades and why the research in our region must continue – to give people, including Russell and his family, more moments together.”  

Margaret has spent 50 Christmases without her father, but she still cherishes the memories of those they shared.

“Christmas was all about playing board games, sharing a proper family Christmas dinner and simply enjoying being together. One Christmas stands out from my twenties - we got snowed in and had to dig our way out of the house to make it to my cousin’s wedding!”

Over 2,600* people in Yorkshire will be told they have cancer this Christmas. Join Margaret and help give families and friends in Yorkshire the greatest gift of all – more time together.

_{*Estimate for December 2025. Every month, 2,636 people in Yorkshire are told they have cancer.}