PEARL Livett never imagined the village charity she set up to make small donations to cancer research would become the fundraising machine it has.

In almost 20 years after the Friends of Kennington Cancer Fund held its first cheese and wine evening, the small charity with a big mission has raised more than £250,000 for the medical oncology unit at the Oxford Cancer Centre.

Pensioner Mrs Livett, who lost her husband Douglas to the disease in 1991, presented the most recent cheque for £10,000 from this year’s fundraising to Professor Adrian Harris, who set up the cancer unit at the hospital in 1988.

Mrs Livett said: “In our wildest dreams we never thought we would ever reach the point where we would be able to say we have raised over a quarter of a million pounds for the research Prof Harris carries out.

“It’s a wonderful feeling.”

Mrs Livett started raising money for the unit with her husband Douglas after he was diagnosed with cancer in 1987.

The couple at first donated the money raised from cheese and wine evenings and village fetes to the children’s leukaemia ward at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.

But when they heard about a new oncology department being built at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, they decided to refocus their efforts.

Mr Livett died in 1991, but Mrs Livett and her team of volunteers continued fundraising in his name and now the Oxford Cancer Centre has opened at the Churchill, cheques are redirected to the medical oncology unit there.

The group hold regular shoe sales, quizzes, and fetes, and are helped by other keen volunteers who hold charity golf tournaments and take part in fundraising runs.

Prof Harris said: "The funds raised from Kennington Cancer Fund have been critical to pump prime research and allow us to test out new ideas rapidly.

“Among these has been the development of a vaccine for malignant melanoma. The first studies were done from funding from the Friends of Kennington Cancer Fund. This has now gone into international trials.

“Our team is grateful for this support, particularly because we can offer the residents of Oxfordshire these new treatments many years before they are available elsewhere.”

Mrs Livett said: “This is just a milestone. Obviously, we will continue doing what we can while we are still able. It has become a way of life now. We are not going to give up.”