MANCHESTER United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is set to hold a golf day to raise money for a cancer charity.

The boss, whose parents Lizzie and Alex both died of lung cancer, has long been a fund-raiser for Christie Hospital.

And he is hoping the Sir Alex Ferguson Golf Classic and Gala Dinner at the Marriot Worsley Park Hotel and Country Club on Friday, July 19, will raise much needed funds. His mother died in 1986, shortly after he had moved from Aberdeen to Old Trafford.

His father died seven years earlier, at the age of 66.

Both his parents smoked. His mother picked up the habit at the age of 14 and his father started at 38.

He said money needed to be raised because the NHS was in a bad state, something the ardent Labour supporter blames on the previous Conservative government.

Money raised from the golf day will go to Christie's Against Cancer.

He said he believed celebrities should do all they can to raise money for charity and praised many of his players, including Adlington-based Ryan Giggs, who does lots of work to help good causes.