A BUSINESSMAN turned his own personal experience of cancer into a positive by raising £1,500 for charity.

Alex Ingham and his family spent the most of 2017 dealing with the disease after his wife Claire was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer on her birthday back in February.

Inspired by the work of national charity Breast Cancer Care, Mr Ingham agreed to donate £1 from all online orders during the charity’s month-long awareness campaign in October.

And after his wife was recently given the all-clear from doctors, Mr Ingham hand over £1,500 to one of charity's local volunteers on behalf of his Thornaby-based firm MI Supplies.

“We raised about £1,300 from online orders and the rest from donations,” said Mr Ingham, from Northallerton. “I read about the October awareness month so I saw that as an easy way of raising some money.

“It’s been a tough year but luckily Claire caught it early and we were given the all-clear just a few weeks ago. But these days there’s always someone you know currently affected by cancer, and I think as you get older you start to take more notice of these things.”

Maureen Bain, from Hartburn, Stockton, is a volunteer for Breast Cancer Care and received the cheque, said: "This money will help us massively. We’re a care-based charity, and one of the services we provide is helping ladies and men to get through the treatment and on to what we call a Moving Forward course.

“It’s one morning a week for four weeks, with speakers talking about reconstruction, diet and other issues."