TOMORROW sees the tenth anniversary of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and his wife Lady Elsie will be celebrating the occasion at an informal get-together with fundraisers.

The foundation her husband launched in 2008 to raise £500,000 has gone on to raise more £12m.

Lady Elsie said it is “hard to believe” a decade has passed and described her husband’s feelings the day his charity launched.

She said: “He was so nervous that day and really didn’t know what the reaction to his appeal would be. He was bowled over by the positive response and I know he’d be astounded by everything we’ve gone on to do.”

Over the past ten years, the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation has funded cutting-edge cancer treatment and cancer support services that directly benefit patients from across the North-East and Cumbria. It is also playing a significant role in international efforts against the disease.

Lady Elsie said: “Bob described our foundation as his legacy. It’s part of him that endures. His attitude to any problem was “what are we going to do about it,” and that’s also true of our foundation. It’s often an emotional experience meeting our supporters because, all too often, there’s a very sad story to explain why they’re helping us. But I see how it gives people affected by cancer strength and I know it gives them hope for the future. I can understand that. It’s been an incredible ten years and we’ve achieved so much together. I’d like to thank everyone who’s helped us in any way from the bottom of my heart.

“Bob described his charity as his last and greatest team. He had no idea how large his team would grow, or how much it would achieve.”

Working within the NHS, the foundation’s aim is to find more effective ways to detect and treat cancer and it does that by working in partnership with other leading charities and organisations.

As a fund within the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Charity, it does not employ professional fundraisers to proactively raise money, and relies completely on third party, volunteer fundraisers and the incredible generosity of the general public.

Most recently, it made a contribution of £892,000 to fund the cutting-edge PROSPECT-NE genome sequencing project and £1m to support the work of the new Wolfson Childhood Cancer Research Centre at Newcastle University.