Droitwich widow fulfils husband's dream to pay for skin cancer detector

A woman who lost her husband to skin cancer has fulfilled his dream of raising £50,000 to pay for a mole-checking machine.

Mike Hull, from Droitwich, Worcestershire, died in March 2022, but his wife, Carol, said he was involved in the fundraising almost until the very end.

She said he would have been very pleased to see the target reached.

The machine will go to Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Her husband was "gentle, kind, always with a smile", Mrs Hull said.

She said he worked in the prison service and fire service "so he had a calmness about him".

He was diagnosed with melanoma - the most serious type of skin cancer - in 2013.

Instead of withdrawing into himself, she said he "went the opposite way" and committed himself to raising money to buy the piece of equipment.

She said: "He was always on the go, he never stopped."

The couple, along with family and friends, sold cakes, made bracelets and helped to do bacon and sausage rolls on a Saturday morning at Droitwich Spa Football Club to raise money.

Their supporters also knitted and sold teddy bears, held quizzes, discos and reunions,

Mr Hull died just before he was able to hit his target of £50,000 and his wife said: "I was extremely upset because I had this think in my head that mike was going to beat it."

But she was able to get the appeal over the finishing line and ended up raising £58,000.

The money will be used to pay for the machine which can be used to quickly check suspicious moles for signs of melanoma and the excess will go to the Royal Marsden Hospital PEACE project.

Their study collects tissue samples from people with melanoma after their death to analyse and improve understanding of the disease.

She said she thought it helped her, after losing her husband and added: "I'll be happy because I'll have fulfilled his dream and I think he'll be watching us and he'll be pleased."

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