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Anthony Eccleston always knew $100,000 wasn't going to save his life.
But in the months leading up to his death the Bolwarra Heights man made the altruistic decision to bequest a large portion of his savings to help save the lives of others.
"Anthony wanted to donate this money to help those that would come behind, and in the end we made this decision together," his wife Maureen Eccleston said.
Mr Eccleston died on October 8 last year following a battle with bowel, liver and brain cancer. He was 59.
Yesterday, Mrs Eccleston donated the money to the Hunter Medical Research Institute in memory of her beloved husband and to help find a cure for cancer.
“In the three years Anthony was sick it was amazing to see what sort of work these people do and he would love to be here today to see what goes on,” she said.
“When we realised how important this work is we decided we just wanted to give the money. Because anything these researchers do is one step closer to finding a cure.”
Mr Eccleston's bequest is the latest of 14 donations of its kind.
His money will go through a process before a decision is made on where the money will be allocated.
“This is a very competitive process but it has to be, otherwise the money will be wasted and it needs to be used in the right way,”HMRI research fellow Dr Nikola Bowden said.
“But a significant amount like $100,000 will help pay a researcher's salary for a year and it gives us chance to test an idea, get some data and take things further.”
HMRI foundation member Vicki Woods said a bequest was the gift that kept giving.
“The beautiful part about something like this is that Maureen and her family will be able to come annually to an awards night and present this cheque to a researcher and learn a little bit about where that money is going,” Ms Woods, of Largs, said.
“And probably the most important thing about this is it is Hunter-based, these are Hunter people and these are Hunter researchers.”