A STREET collector from an organisation which claims to be raising money to ‘reduce the risk of cancer’ in children has said the company is not “misleading the public”.

Two women, who did not wish to be named, were collecting money for NPCCS, or Natural Prevention Child Cancer Support, on Cricklade Street in Cirencester this morning.

The police are currently investigating the organisation after suspicions were raised by residents, including Meg Blumsom, co-ordinator of the Abbey 900 Festival, after collectors were spotted last week.

It is also understood that the Charity Commission is looking into the organisation, which the two collectors told the Standard is based in Bristol, and usually collects in Cirencester every Thursday.

The leaflet, which is handed out for a suggested donation of 50p, claims that the money collected goes towards “support in the form of an initial consultation with a qualified nutritional therapist who can help parents and carers to establish a plan to combat any lack of nutrients the child may be suffering from”.

The organisation also offers “regular organic fruit and veg boxes delivered to the family’s door and a high quality masticating juicer”.

“To be honest, if we were here for children’s cancer and the money wasn’t going there, that is sick,” said one of the collectors. “We should go to hell. Everything I live for is for telling people what really matters in life.”

Asked why the number and email address listed on the leaflets they were handing out are invalid, she said: “It’s a misprint”.

She explained, due to a mix up at the print company used to make the leaflets, collectors have been instructed by their boss to correct the phone numbers or explain the error before they hand them out.

“With the number, we do explain to them that one of the fives needs knocking off.”

She said the company is “not a charity” and has been operating throughout the South West for at least five years.

However, when the Standard spoke to a man who claimed to be the director of NPCCS earlier this week, he said the organisation has only been operating for a matter of weeks.

The leaflet being handed out by the collectors is dated May 2017 and states it is “Issue Two”.

Though the woman said this was another misprint, and was not the second issue.

“We’ve been around for so long, and we’ve never had a problem before,” she said, adding that “today is the first day I’ve done it [collected for the company] in so long”.

She said she has worked for more than 25 charities in the past, having lost her best friend to leukaemia in October, and had also lost her partner earlier last year.

“The reason why I’m here, the government, when a child has cancer, they’re not helping them with their treatment as much and also they don’t educate on what’s best for their child, what they’re eating.

“It can react in their bodies. It’s very very close to my heart,” she added.

She went on to say that the company used to give money to various charities but “with a lot of charities, the directors get paid loads”.

“So what we want to do, the reason we are not a charity, what we can do then, is give a bigger amount to the child,” she added.

She said she had met people who had benefited from the organisation’s work.

“We want to pay for the child’s actual nutrition.

“The most important thing is, we educate people on what they’re consuming,” she added.

For more on this story see:

Investigations underway after police are alerted to suspicious street collectors in Cirencester