Meet the 97-year-old ‘really on the ball’ grandma who has raised £750,000 for Cancer Research UK

A grandma from Teesside has spent 50 years of her life raising funds for Cancer Research UK.

Dorothy Hutton from Redcar has raised an incredible £750,000 for the charity since her first event in 1970. And although she is unable to attend the fundraisers due to mobility issues, she is still very much involved with the committee.

As a result, the 97-year-old was presented with a plaque earlier this year by Janet Leafe – relationship manager for Cancer Research UK – for her commitment, loyalty and dedication.

Viv Howlett, 72, secretary of Guisborough and District Friends of Cancer Research UK said: “Even though she is unable to come to our events because of her mobility, it’s only that that stops her. Her brain certainly doesn’t. She is really on the ball. I’ve known Dorothy since I was 16.

“Dorothy has been involved all the way through everything and she came to all our events. In the later years, even up until 18 months ago, she was still coming to our events and she used to do a speech when we were doing a fundraiser about the work for Cancer Research and where the money was going.

“She was just very much on the ball with everything and still is. She still likes to know what’s going on with the committee. It’s something Dorothy has always been passionate about.”

Dorothy’s involvement with Cancer Research UK began when West Dyke Methodist Church in Redcar, where she attended, organised a flower festival to raise funds for charity. But when they had nowhere locally to send the money, they then decided to start their own fundraising committee in 1969 and Dorothy became the president.

The first event Dorothy organised in her role at the Guisborough and District Friends of Cancer Research committee was a summer ball at the York Hotel in Redcar in 1970. Since then it has held many events to attract different audiences, including sponsored walks, a prize draw giving the winner the chance to stay in the Lake District for one week, a concert by the Marske fishermen’s choir and an upcoming fashion show on April 10.

Dorothy, who lives in residential care in Redcar and has one daughter, Anne, who lives in Northampton with her husband, Mark, and their daughter, Beth, commented: “Everyone knows someone who has been involved with cancer one way or another and it affects everyone, and therefore we wanted everyone to benefit from the fundraising.”

Viv, who met Dorothy at Cleveland Technical College when Dorothy was her shorthand teacher, described the fundraising champion as “very, very much a leader”.

Viv, who lives in Marske, was “roped in to the committee by Dorothy”, and the former teacher and student still regularly keep in touch today. All the money raised by the Guisborough Cancer Research group goes to the research centre in Newcastle as they wanted to keep it in the local region.

Viv added: “The events are mostly in Guisborough. We get a tremendous amount of help from Guisborough football club and we hold a lot of our events there and they give us the room for free.

“We try different things because we want to get different groups of people. For instance, it’ll probably be all ladies who come to the fashion show but with the fishermen’s choir we get a different audience again so it’s trying to spread the word about Cancer Research and what we do.”

Viv had breast cancer nine years ago, which she said was detected early. She had a mastectomy and has fully recovered.

Her cousin, Wendy Wilson, is the treasurer of Guisborough and District Friends of Cancer Research UK, and she has also had breast cancer. The group wants to “put the message out there to everybody” and raise awareness of all 200 types of cancer.

The Guisborough and District Friends of Cancer Research UK committee meets every month at High Peak, Guisborough. Find out more by clicking here.