Marie Curie Cancer Care’s annual financial report reveals a £5.9m income increase – up 4.5 per cent on the previous year.

The charity’s total incoming resources for the year to March 2012 totalled £138.4m, compared to £132.5m last year.

Overall voluntary income increased by £2.2m to £76.2m, with fundraising costs up 8.6 per cent. In total the charity recorded a surplus of £686,000, with reserves of £114.2m.

Legacies accounted for approximately 30 per cent of fundraising income over the year, with £22.6m from supporters’ wills – up £2m (10 per cent) on 2010/11.

Marie Curie achieved its target of keeping the deficit on unrestricted funds below the £5m mark, reducing it to £3.1m (excluding gains on disposal of fixed assets). It achieved this through higher net fundraising income, higher shops profits and lower expenditure, the report states.