Lunch - Speaker Kelly Kimberley

RESARCHING NEW TREATMENTS FOR BREAST CANCER

The work of a small Oxfordshire charity working for a future free of breast cancer was described to members of Henley Rotary Club at their lunch meeting at the Red Lion hotel on Tuesday.

Kelly Gibson, the corporate fundraising manager, explained how it started 30 years ago from humble beginnings when Dr Anthony Leathem, a pathologist at the Middlesex (later University College) Hospital, became upset at the number of post mortems he carried out on young women with breast cancer. He was determined to carry out research into breast cancer survival, but there was no budget for it in the hospital

His wife Patricia was a breast cancer theatre nurse at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital and they both raised money by street collections, contacting organisations, selling allotments-full of sweet peas and ginger cakes. Eventually they were able to launch the charity in 1993, six years after The Lancet had published results of Anthony’s research which had identified a chemical difference between aggress and non-aggressive breast cancer cells.

The charity, based in Abingdon, not far from the couple’s Long Wittenham home, only has three full-time staff but several volunteers. It has funded research into the onset of breast cancer (one in eight women are expected to get it, whilst one in five of those who have it suffer a secondary spread) and its aim is to increase survival after diagnosis. Research is also being carried out into diet and lifestyle, as well as hoping to provide an easy-to-use home blood or urine test for people to monitor themselves.

Sam Lamden proposed the vote of thanks to Kelly as well as to the charity’s corporate support official who liaises with Rotary clubs, Kimberly Kelly, who was also present at the lunch.

Earlier, Peter Thomson had given a brief report about the visit on Wednesday of last week which 11 members had made to the Culham Science Centre.