A NEWPORT man is attempting to hit his fundraising target of £1 million for Cancer Research before reaches his 91st birthday in July.

Michael Locke is secretary of Newport Group of Friends of Cancer Research UK and has been raising money for Cancer Research UK after his youngest daughter was diagnosed with cancer in 1983.

Mr Locke said: "On the way back from her last chemotherapy session, which was probably around about 86 Or maybe 85, she said 'I want to give something back' and then she made the suggestion to my wife that we start a group and started raising money."

Since then, Mr Locke has worked alongside his family and members of the community in Newport to raise money by various means.

He has had huge support from his wife, Bridget, who moved to Newport to be a reporter for the Argus when she was in her 20s.

The Newport Group of Friends of Cancer Research UK has raised funds in a variety of ways.

Mr Locke recalls a time when two young men approached him at his house to ask how they could help and ended up cycling around the world.

That is just one example, but the group have consistently raised money through sponsored events and collections.

Mr Locke has raised plenty of money by selling more than 2,000 jars of his homemade marmalade.

Mr Locke was awarded an MBE in 2007 for services to cancer research after raising more than £500,000.

He dedicates his MBE to everyone who has supported him over the years.

He said: "It (the MBE) was not just for me, the M was for me, Mike, the B is for Bridget my wife and the E was for everybody else who helped."

Mr Locke planned to reach £1 million raised before his 90th birthday, but the Covid pandemic meant that target remained elusive.

Fundraising events such as an annual golf day, which has raised around £250,000 in total over the years, had to be scrapped.

"Once that was gone, other forms of money raising stopped - people just couldn't get out to do it," said Mr Locke.

"We just could see that we weren't going to get there.

"But we were absolutely sure we were going to get to a million if things had been normal."

Dubbed Mike's Million, around £962,000 has been raised so at the time of writing.

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When asked why people should donate to Cancer Research UK in particular, Mr Locke responded passionately.

"It (Cancer Research UK) is the largest cancer research charity, I think in the world, but of course they're not insular in that any research they get is shared worldwide," said Mr Locke.

"One in two or one in three of us will be affected by cancer one way or the other.

"I mean, obviously, the stress has been on the pandemic in the last couple of years because of this awful business, but cancer is still there and it's going to be there for a long time until the scientists master it.

"They have already made such progress, not just in not just in beating it, but in alleviating the suffering and increasing people's life expectancy.

"It is so much better than when we started off.

"They are making progress every single day, and every single day every penny helps."

To donate to Mike's Million and help Mr Locke reach his target, click here to go to his fundraising page on the Cancer Research UK website.