PTS has chosen Cancer Research UK as its official charity for 2011 and is planning a wide range of activities across its extensive branch network to raise funds.

PTS, which has more than 300 branches across the UK, will be encouraging its staff across its trade counters and its head office at Magna Park, Leicestershire to complete various fundraising activities. In recent years, employees have walked along Hadrian's Wall, trekked across the Derbyshire Dales and completed 5 a side football challenges all for its partnered charity which in 2010 was The Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity, funding the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses in over 30 towns across the UK. The charity is entirely funded by the public and has been at the heart of the progress made in finding a cure for cancer that has already seen survival rates double in the last 40 years.

Nicola Clegg, Head of Marketing at PTS, commented:  "Most people know a relative or a friend who has been diagnosed with cancer, so we are delighted to have chosen Cancer Research UK as our official charity for 2011.  All of our branches will be undertaking their own fundraising initiatives and we are confident we can beat our fundraising targets."

Debbie Fitzgerald, area volunteer manager for Cancer Research UK in Leicestershire, commented:  "Cancer Research UK's work has saved millions of lives in the UK and across the world.  Cancer survival rates have doubled since the 1970s and our work has been at the heart of that progress. We are leading the world in finding new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, taking research all the way from laboratory bench to the patient's bedside."

Debbie continued: "Our corporate partners are very important to us and we are delighted that PTS Plumbing, with its branch network that is at the heart of so many communities across the UK, is supporting us this year."