IT IS a charity which since its foundation in the late Eighties has done a huge amount to raise funds for the treatment of and awareness of breast cancer.
When Bill Exley lost his first wife, Joyce, he generously decided to help raise funds to boost the spirits of other patients on the ward where she had been treated at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.
That initial idea of buying TVs to lift patients’ spirits swiftly gained momentum and turned into a major charity which soon had a whole town behind it.
Over more than 20 years, this remarkable charity has raised over £1m which has helped fund research, a modernised ward 3 oncolocy/breast care unit to the tune of £300,000, fund palliative exercise classes and post-operative yoga classes. It also bought scanners and radiology machines.
The Huddersfield Royal Infirmary Breast Clinic Appeal became one of the town’s most high profile and most well supported local charities.
Huddersfield people took it to their hearts because it was such a great cause but also because it was run so superbly well by people who felt strongly about the charity and often had powerful personal reasons for wanting to help.
Now, after 23 years and a huge amount of money raised, the charity is being wound up. But there are many in the town who will long have cause to remember other people’s generosity of heart and spirit, often at difficult times in their own lives.
Their contribution to the town and to the lives of others will not be forgotten.
