GENEROUS people across the North West have joined thousands of others throughout the UK to donate more than £90,000 of their loose change to Cancer Research UK at Coinstar machines.

Over a 19-year fundraising partnership, the donations - which passed the million mark this month nationally - are helping to fund research to beat cancer sooner and help more men, women and children to survive.

Coinstar - a specialist in self-service coin counting - operates a network of nearly 2,000 machines conveniently located in supermarkets. Customers can easily take unsorted change to the machine where it is reliably counted and converted into a voucher that can be exchanged for cash or used towards shopping.

Thanks to its "Coins that Count Programme", participants can choose to donate their coins directly to charity, resulting in the £1 million already raised for Cancer Research UK.

In the North West alone, more than £90,000 was raised towards the total, with a highest single donation transaction of £371.

Cancer Research UK spokesperson for the North West, Jane Bullock, said: “We are so grateful to Coinstar and everyone across the region who has used its machines to make donations to the charity.

“It’s been a long-standing partnership and the money raised has helped fund world-class research into a disease that will directly affect one-in-two of us at some stage in our lives.

“Reaching the £1 million milestone this month proves that when added together, every penny really does count.”

Coinstar country manager, Paul Ogle, said: “Coinstar is proud to support Cancer Research UK in its vision to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.

"Through this collaboration, we aim to make it easy and convenient for consumers to donate to Cancer Research UK and we encourage people across the North West to continue donating their spare change at one of our machines near to them.”