The death of Sir David Amess has been turned into a lifesaver.
Friends of the slain MP are launching a campaign he helped devise to raise £3million to fight prostate cancer.
Sir David was a patron of the charity Prost8, which wants to fund six treatment suites at NHS hospitals across the UK.
Founder Paul Sayers, 66, said it was his chum Sir David’s idea to urge one in every eight men to donate £1 – the same fraction of men who will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime.
Paul said: “He was a huge part of the campaign and the kind of person you couldn’t dislike. It was a devastating blow, losing him.
“It’s been difficult to get the direction back, and the court case has been in our minds. It’s been tough, we’ve had to think about how to go on without his input.”
Since the Southend MP’s murder, at least £40,000 has been donated in his name to five charities close to his heart, including Prost8. Retired Southend builder Steve Bannister, 67, who was helped by Prost8, said: “The more that can have treatment because of Sir David, the better.”
The launch of the ONE in EIGHT campaign comes days after an Old Bailey judge jailed Ali Harbi Ali, 26, for life for stabbing the 69-year-old father of five during a constituency surgery in Southend last October.
