Wednesday 6 August 2014

Members at work and cancer.


August is not my favourite month for holiday so I tend to use it for informal meetings with ACEVO members and today I had lunch with Graham Duxbury, the new CEO of Groundwork. Graham took over from the inimitable Sir Tony Hawkhead who now looks after the nation's children at Action for Children. Graham has been with Groundwork for nearly 16 years and it’s good to see charities promoting their talented staff as opposed to searching for some supposed hot shot from the private sector. Groundwork operates in the most disadvantaged parts of the UK, improving people's lives and prospects and work in a green way.

"Changing places, changing lives- one green step at a time"

See their website here - www.groundwork.org.uk/

And Graham was after my thoughts on the search for a new Chair for Groundwork. So if you are interested there is more about the chair role on their website.

Yesterday I was seeing the Chair of the fundraising committee for the Francis Crick Institute, being established by a consortia led by Cancer Research UK; their CEO is Harpal Kumar (who is a much valued ACEVO member). Charles Manby is spearheading the search for funds for an incredibly important new and exciting Institute which will pioneer medical research. One of the founding principles of this new institute will be that it is not just about cancer but looking at the ways disease develops and new ways to treat it. So it is interdisciplinary. Opening in 2015, it will be a neighbour to ACEVO. And run by that great man, Sir Paul Nurse. They have got to about two thirds of their fundraising ask. The will get the rest because this is an Institute that will do vital work. As a cancer survivor I have become hugely interested in research in this area and there are some remarkable developments around the genetic make-up of humans and the markers that indicate things like cancer. So we understand better the causes and can better treat the symptoms. As my consultant said to me when I was at the Churchill, we have to move away from old style industrial surgery based on cutting things out to individually designed treatments that work on the different genetic make-up of us all. A great cause, to be strongly supported.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Stephen,

I know it's been a long time but I was posting some of our shared past on my own blog (www.medwegian.co.uk)and found your 6 August post on yours. I'm fascinated to know more about your cancer survival, as I now seek the same, though perhaps with less hope.

Hope all is well with you,

Chris Kiff.