BOWDON-based children’s cancer research charity, Friends of Rosie, has certainly started 2017 with a bang - after receiving news of a legacy donation worth more than £200,000.

A York man, Phillip Leeman, bequeathed his property in central York, which has been valued at approximately £220,000, to the children’s charity.

Despite having no immediate connection to the charity, Mr Leeman was keen that the value of his estate was used after his death for a cause that gave great benefit to others, particularly children, and he found Friends of Rosie.

Friends of Rosie provideS start-up funding to Manchester medical and scientific institutions to help children’s cancer research projects get off the ground.

Friends of Rosie Trustee, Anne Irwin, said: “We are astonished and extremely grateful for this extraordinarily generous donation to our charity.

"Children’s cancer research is a costly and time consuming business, with an average start-up project costing around £70,000 to fund for just one year.

"In addition, if a project shows particular promise, we then look to fund a further year to give the researchers more results to use as evidence to attract large pharmaceutical or national charity backing, with the hope of leading to a new clinical trial.

“With that in mind, Mr Leeman’s legacy donation will help us to fund the equivalent of around three projects. Projects which we hope could make all the difference to the way children with cancer are diagnosed and treated.”