Sandra hands over charity reins

From the archive, first published Tuesday 5th Dec 2006.

A charity director who nurtured a project for 16 years is to hand over to a new leader halfway through a £1.1million fundraising campaign.

Sandra Hunton said she was sad to be leaving Bradford Cancer Support before the completion of the Daisy Appeal which is raising money to build a new base next to Bradford Royal Infirmary, but she was confident her successor will ensure its success.

As previously reported in the Telegraph & Argus, the Daisy Appeal, which started in June, has already raised half the cash needed to guarantee the new centre in Smith Lane.

Fundraisers are appealing for an extra boost in a bid to raise more than £750,000 by the end of the year.

Mrs Hunton, 61, has been working towards her retirement for two years so that the handover to Linda Howard, 50, goes smoothly.

Mrs Hunton, who said she will stay involved with the charity on a voluntary basis, handed over the reins exactly 16 years to the day that she began working on the project.

She said despite her regrets about leaving halfway through the appeal it was necessary to make the break.

"I was hoping the building would have been built by the time I retired but it took longer than we thought it would, my family needs me and I felt I couldn't defer it any longer. But I will continue to help on the Daisy Appeal as a volunteer."

Mrs Hunton said one of her biggest achievements with the charity was setting up the benefits advice service which helps patients collect any benefits available to them.

"It was the first thing I did when I came to Bradford," she said. "It has been a huge success and copied by Macmillan Cancer Care."

She said one of the most promising parts of the new building was the prospect of all aspects of the service being run under one roof. At the moment the benefits service is housed separately from the rest of the Duckworth Lane-based charity.

Mrs Hunton also said she felt her successor would do a fantastic job. "I have been very privileged to be involved in setting up an organisation like this and developing it, there are not many like it in the country," she said. "She is the right person to take this organisation forward. She is very clear about the priorities which are the patients."

Mrs Howard paid tribute to the work done by her predecessor - which has included developing the charity so it is run by 22 paid staff and boosted by about 75 volunteers.

And she said she intended to continue in that vein.

"Not much is going to change," she said. "It's about meeting the needs of people and their families," she said.

e-mail: rebecca.wright @bradford.newsquest.co.uk