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Humphries Kirk honoured for helping to secure vital funds for Cancer Research UK

Humphries Kirk offices across Dorset and Somerset have been recognised by Cancer Research UK after facilitating gifts from people choosing to leave a legacy to the charity in their wills.

The charity presented a representative from each Humphries Kirk office with a certificate to acknowledge the firm's ongoing support. The firm has been offering a Free Will Service to people aged 55 and over in Dorset and Somerset, as well as giving guidance and support for those wishing to write a will or update an existing one.

The totals raised by each office are as follows:

Bronze certificate
Crewkerne - £302,000
Swanage - £428,000

Silver certificate
Bournemouth - £511,000

Gold certificate
Wareham - £1 million
Parkstone & Poole - £1.28 million
Dorchester - £1.5 million

Adam Scott, partner at Humphries Kirk, commented: "Humphries Kirk is proud to support Cancer Research UK's Free Will Service throughout all our offices across Dorset and Somerset. The extent of the legacies that clients have chosen to leave in wills with us only goes to show their generosity and enthusiasm to beat cancer sooner."

Cancer Research UK receives no government funding for its research and relies heavily on the generosity of people leaving gifts in their wills. Over a third of its research into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer is funded through supporters leaving a legacy to the charity.

A legacy gift can be anything someone wishes to leave in their will. Traditionally this is money but it could be anything that has a monetary value like an estate or specific item. Anything left to Cancer Research UK can be marked to be ring-fenced for research into a specific cancer type or research within a local area.

Clare Moore, director of legacies at Cancer Research UK, explained: "We all reach a stage at some point in our lives where we start to look ahead and consider what will happen to our financial affairs in the future, when we may no longer be around.

"At Cancer Research UK, we work with a number of local solicitors including Humphries Kirk to offer people aged 55 or over the chance to make an all-important first will or to update an existing one. The service has grown in popularity over the past couple of years and while it is provided free of any obligation, the vast majority of people choose to kindly leave a gift to the charity.

"By offering Cancer Research UK's Free Will Service, the firm has become well informed about our work and are very supportive of our life-saving research. Whenever their clients express a desire to support us, the staff act with great sensitivity as they explain the various options and allow individuals or families to make the right choice in their own good time.

"It's quite astonishing to think that by simply combining enthusiasm with the highest professional standards, Humphries Kirk has helped secure these legacy gifts, which will go a long way towards helping our scientists, doctors and nurses to beat cancer sooner."

Cancer survival in the UK has doubled since the early 1970s and Cancer Research UK's work has been at the heart of that progress. Every step taken by its doctors, nurses and scientists relies on donations from the public and the kindness of supporters who choose to leave a gift in their will.

The Free Will Service has been running successfully for over 20 years across a network of solicitors in the UK. Anyone who wishes to use the service is asked to consider leaving a legacy gift to Cancer Research UK but is under no obligation to do so.

Humphries Kirk has offices in Bournemouth, Parkstone, Poole, Swanage, Wareham, Dorchester and Crewkerne and has an international network of lawyers. Visit www.cruk.org/freewillservice for more information about leaving a legacy gift and Cancer Research UK's free will service.

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