The dying wishes of a Rotary Club stalwart will help boost the Telegraph & Argus Bradford Can... Cancer Research Appeal.

When Geoff Baxter, who was junior vice-president of the Rotary Club of Shipley, discovered he had terminal cancer he asked his family to request charitable donations in lieu of flowers at his funeral.

And he asked for the money raised to be split between the Bradford Can... Appeal and the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus (ASBAH) - a charity he and his wife Jo had been involved with for 30 years after their late son Martin, who died eight years ago aged 25, was born with both conditions.

Mr Baxter, who lived at Nab Wood, lost his fight for life aged 60 within weeks of doctors diagnosing stomach cancer, which had spread to his bones.

More than £1,200 was raised from donations and collections taken during a packed funeral at Nab Wood Crematorium and thanksgiving service at St Peter's Church in Shipley, where Mr Baxter was gift aid secretary.

Mrs Baxter, 55, said despite realising his condition was terminal her husband, who would have been 61 on Sunday, had still found the strength to think about how he could help the Bradford Can... Appeal after his death.

She said: "Because of the nature of his illness and the frightening speed and aggressive way in which it had spread he said he wanted to support the Bradford Can... Appeal. I'm very proud of his gesture and how he coped with the whole thing because he was in a lot of discomfort and knew there was nothing the medics could do except keep him comfortable.

"But that was the sort of person Geoff was - a very quiet but very caring man.

"We'd followed the Bradford Can... Appeal in the T&A with interest but until this happened to Geoff we never thought it was something that would affect us.''

Mrs Baxter, who praised Bradford Royal Infirmary for their sensitive treatment of her husband, said she hoped his gesture would encourage others to make donations.

Mr Baxter, who was a retired Abbey National mortgage manager, leaves a son Andrew, 35. He held a number of posts at local and national level with the charity ASBAH and was a life-long member of The Oddfellows friendly society. His wife is Bradford district area chairman of the organisation.

Bradford Can... Appeal director Gille Andrews said: "We really admire people who in their own adversity can find it in themselves to think about others and the benefit that contributions to the appeal can make to future cancer sufferers.''

The Bradford Can... Appeal, which has so far raised almost £90,000 with Sovereign Health Care pledging match funding up to £100,000, is aiming to raise £1 million for pioneering research in Bradford.

Reaching that target will trigger a further £5 million funding from the Cancer Research Campaign which will be spent at the University of Bradford's Cancer Research Unit and on trials of anti-cancer drugs at BRI.