Dame Judi Dench has accepted an invitation to become a patron of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.
Her husband, actor Michael Williams, died of lung cancer earlier this year.
The Liverpool-based foundation is named after the late entertainer and television host Roy Castle, a non-smoker, who died in 1994 after a two-year battle with the disease.
Professor Ray Donelly, founder of the foundation, said the organisation was very pleased to have Dame Judi on board: "It is a great encouragement to us all to have the public support of Dame Judi and we are very grateful to her," he said.
The 66-year-old Oscar-winning actress said: "I hope that, by offering my support to the foundation, I can play a part, however small, in finding a cure for this devastating disease. "
The London Road-based centre is the only research institute in the world wholly dedicated to the study of lung cancer.
The announcement of Dame Judi's patronage is seen as a welcome boost for the troubled charity which has been dogged with rifts over the past 18 months.
Former fundraiser Sylvia Ingham quit her £50,000 post as chief executive of the foundation amid allegations of financial irregularities.
A Charity Commission report concluded her conduct "fell below the standard to be reasonably expected of the chief executive of a charity".
And last year Roy Castle's widow Fiona, a close friend of Mrs Ingham, stepped down as one of the foundation's patrons amid claims she was unhappy about the way it was being run. Initially she asked foundation bosses to remove her late husband's name from its title but later withdrew her demands after the Bishop of Liverpool stepped in to mediate between the two sides.
The Rt Rev James Jones said Mrs Castle had decided her husband's name "should remain synonymous with the fight to help lung cancer sufferers worldwide".
Thanks to Jan M and Mike Kennedy for sending the story which appeared on the Ananova website and to Mike for the pictures.