BUILDER and developer Seddon has announced its charity of choice.

The Bolton-based firm will be donating all cash raised to The Christie in Manchester for the next two years.

The Christie charity, a longstanding partner of Seddon, provides enhanced services above and beyond what the NHS funds, supporting cancer care, research and education at specialist cancer centre, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Withington.

The Christie, along with University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, was chosen as one of only two sites in the UK to provide a national high energy proton beam therapy service.

Proton beam therapy (PBT) is a specialist form of radiotherapy which can very precisely target certain cancers, increasing success rates and reducing side-effects. Its introduction to the UK in 2018 will bring treatment closer to patients who currently have to travel abroad to receive it.

While this is an exciting development for cancer patients here in the UK, there are some limitations to PBT and so although The Department of Health has funded the cost of building the centre at The Christie, The Christie charity needs to raise an additional £5.6m to create a dedicated research space within the new centre to further improve the targeting of PBT and to ensure even more patients will benefit from the therapy in the future.

Seddon has planned a year of fundraising events, including a Kilimanjaro climb, the London Marathon and fire walking.

Jonathan Seddon, Managing Director at Seddon, said: “As a fantastic cause that’s close to the hearts of the Seddon family, we’re delighted to announce our continued support of The Christie charity for the next two years. I look forward to getting involved in the fundraising events!”

The firm's initial major support initiative was in 1997, when it provided The Christie charity with two operating theatres. In 2009 and 2010, Seddon raised over £350k by running, cycling, swimming and walking hundreds of miles in fundraising events.

Louise Stimson, The Christie charity’s head of fundraising, said: “Seddon has a long history with The Christie, having been a supporter of ours for the last 30 years. In 2009/10 it was The Christie’s corporate sporting partner and raised more than £350K for the charity.

“We are delighted to be partnering with the company again, and for the next two years the money raised through this relationship will go towards funding vital proton beam therapy research.”

The partnership kicked off on January 27, with Seddon staff joining the board and representatives of The Christie for breakfast and lunch launches, to learn more about the charity and the collaboration. Staff will also have the chance to sign up to the numerous fundraising events.