A dedicated volunteer is marking 49 years of her life-saving service this Christmas.

Margaret Stevens, from Great Ayton, has spent nearly 50 years raising money for cancer research in Yorkshire, driven by the death of her father, Len, who died from prostate cancer in the 1970s.

She joined the Great Ayton volunteer group for Yorkshire Cancer Research in 1977, a year after his death, and now serves as its chair.

Mrs Stevens said: "I was 29 and had three young children when my father was diagnosed.

"He hadn’t been very well for a while, but being a stoic gentleman, he never complained.

"He went to the doctor quietly, without telling my mother or me.

"It wasn’t until he came home after a hospital appointment that I realised something was very wrong."

(Left) Margaret's father with her so

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