A charity set up by a Bushey Synagogue member whose wife died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 33 has received a potential £100,000 boost from global financial services company XL.
Nicki's Smile, a fund of Pancreatic Cancer UK, will be the XL Group's chosen charity from 2012-15. Nicki Blake died in late-2010 after a two-year battle against the disease.
On launching the charity last year, her husband Dan pointed out that "pancreatic cancer is the fifth biggest killer in the UK and for a whole generation the survival rate has not improved".
Welcoming the commitment from XL, Mr Blake said the hope was for Nicki's Smile to be "a catalyst for improving life expectancy by funding research into understanding how symptoms can be more accurately identified, thereby aiding early diagnosis.
"If we can make a difference to even one person, then Nicki's death would not have been in vain."