A SON who set up a charity to combat the devastating disease that killed his father has reached his first major milestone.

Father-of-three Hadley Silver of Lee Grove, Chigwell, and his mother Brenda Silver, set up the charity Development of Pancreatic Cancer Research after Phil Silver died of the disease just six weeks after his diagnosis, aged 56.

The 36-year-old has now raised £16,000 for a machine to aid research into the disease.

“It took me a couple of years to get over my dad’s death,” he said. “It was a shock when he was diagnosed and I found out he was at stage four of a disease that normally has four stages.

“I thought there must be an earlier detection to enable someone to know what they have before they’re condemned by it.”

The machine that the pair have raised money for will be used to divide cells at the pancreatic cancer research centre in St Bartholomew’s Hospital, central London, where Mr Silver died.

“The head of research told us that the machine they had kept breaking,” said Mrs Silver. “We wanted to do something that would really make a difference.”

They are now speaking to the hospital about the next piece of kit they will raise money for and are organising a charity football match with former Tottenham Hotspurs FC players in July.

Anyone who wants to help with the charity’s events should email Mrs Silver at the address brendalynda@ntlworld.com.

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