Generous alumni at Bradford University have pledged a record-breaking £110,000 to the Telegraph & Argus Bradford Crocus Cancer Appeal, it can be revealed today.

A five-week telethon at the University saw a team of current students call former graduates to ask them to support our £1 million campaign by making a one-off donation or pledge over a period of time.

Their initial target had been to raise £40,000, but the Team Bradford volunteers smashed that in just two weeks and ended up almost trebling it by the end of the annual event.

All the money raised will go towards the T&A Bradford Crocus Cancer Appeal, which we are running with the University, Yorkshire Cancer Research and the Sovereign Health Care Charitable Trust.

We hope to buy the University’s Institute of Cancer Therapeutics a new mass spectrometer, which will allow its scientists to study the role of protein in cancer ten times faster than ever before and hopefully lead to the development of new, less toxic cancer treatments.

Tara Gibbins-Klein, 19, a first year clinical sciences student, was one of the volunteers who took part. She said the people she spoke to were eager to support the appeal.

She said: “It really resonated with everyone because I think most people have been affected by cancer. It is something a lot of people felt strongly about on a personal level.

“Some people shared their stories with me on the phone, telling me about family members who had suffered from the disease.

“One woman I spoke to, who is battling cancer at the moment, was really keen to support the appeal because the treatment she is receiving has been developed in the same sort of way that the appeal is trying to achieve.

“It was quite humbling to hear some of the stories. At the start, we were operating from a script, but when people started speaking about how much the appeal meant to them we ended up just speaking from the heart.

“It was a great event to take part in and I think we’re all keen to carry on going because we’re all invested in it now.”

Davide Calogero, head of alumni and development at the University, said the telethon had been the University’s most successful to date.

He added: “The generosity shown by our graduates has been overwhelming and has provided a springboard which will help us to raise the rest of the appeal target.”