A BIG-hearted bride-to-be from North Dorset has asked her wedding guests to take part in a charity raffle for local cancer patients rather than buy her gifts.

Mum-of-three Kay Farrell will marry partner Gary Ridout at Holyrood Church in Shillingstone on May 19.

During the reception at Portman Hall, the couple will hold a prize raffle with all proceeds going to Dorset Cancer Care Foundation (DCCF).

Kay said: “Many of my family and friends have experienced cancer. Some have even lost their lives to it.

“One of my best friends Ali Campbell is thankfully winning her battle against it, so I thought: “Gary and I have everything we need, why not use this happy occasion to help people who are fighting cancer?”

Kay has forgone presents on two of her previous birthdays to raise money for cancer charities.

She said: “Everyone loves a raffle and we have collected some great prizes for the wedding day, including beauty treatments and bottles of bubbly.”

Dorset Cancer Care Foundation helps people living with cancer cope with the financial pressures of the disease by giving grants to help them pay for everything from transport to and from hospital, to household bills and short breaks.

Kay added: “My friend Ali who also lives in Shillingstone, was diagnosed with head and neck cancer almost exactly a year ago and was helped by DCCF.”

It took a team of surgeons 12-and-a -half hours to cut away Ali’s cancer and use flesh and bone from her left shoulder to reconstruct the top left of her mouth. She was then in a medically-induced coma for four days.

Kay said: “DCCF helped Ali afford some car repairs and funded her petrol costs to and from the hospital, so afterwards she invited people to ‘sponsor’ her through six weeks of radiotherapy, with all proceeds going to the charity. She has since raised over £1500.”

Ali, who will be running the raffle on the day, said: “It’s fabulous that Kay and Gary are using their wedding day to help DCCF.”