Allan McKinnon
The Beatson Pebble appeal has reached a Landmark £8 million of it’s required £10 million appeal, and has announced the name of the new cancer research centre.
The Wolfson Wohl research centre (WWRC) was chosen as the name for the new Translational research centre for cancer research, to honour a joint donation of £2.85m to the Beatson Pebble Appeal from the Wolfson foundation and the Maurice Wohl charitable trust. This donation builds on a series of smaller, individual donations from more than 1,900 staff, students and members of the public to raise £8m.
The University of Glasgow is hoping that people will continue to fundraise in order to raise the outstanding £2m, and its appeal has already attracted several famous names and organisations, including both Celtic and Rangers football clubs. The hope is that this generous donation of £1.75m from the Wolfson foundation, and £1.1m from the Maurice Wohl charitable trust will act as a catalyst, causing an increase in donations to meet the £10 million aim, and create a unique Translational research centre. Professor Sir Michael Bond, campaign chairman, thanked the two charitable trusts for their donation.
He said; “Their joint donation has had a significant impact on our appeal, bringing the reality of this world-class facility which will transform scientific advances in the lab into real benefits for patients a good deal closer.”
The centre will be built for the purpose of bridging the gap between cancer research and cancer treatment. With advances in both knowledge and technology, Cancer research is moving at a faster pace than ever, but much of this research is yet to make an impact on patient treatment or care. The Translational research centre would fill this gap, taking discoveries found in the laboratory and turning them into treatments for patients in hospitals, by providing a state of the art facility to research treatments and cures for some of Scotland’s most common cancers, including breast, lung and prostate cancers.
Scotland, and Glasgow in particular, holds the title of Cancer capital of Europe, with around 27,000 people being diagnosed with cancer each year, and this figure is climbing. Around 41 people die every day in Scotland of Cancer, so the WWRC will be crucial in the strategic fight against cancer, where Glasgow’s Cancer services serve over 60% of the Scottish population.
The WWRC would be the fourth part of a concerted effort between the University of Glasgow, Cancer research UK, and the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board to build the Glasgow centre for Cancer research, the largest of its kind in Scotland, and one of the largest in the UK. At present the Beatson Institute for Cancer research provides cancer research, the Beatson Oncology centre at Gartnavel Hospital provides post-operative care and treatment for cancer patients, and the Glasgow Biobank is providing tissue for research. The fourth and final aspect of the Glasgow centre for cancer research is the Wolfson Wohl research centre, which will span the gaps in these facilities to bring discoveries from the laboratories and transform them into treatments for Scotland’s most common cancers.
The construction of the WWRC is scheduled to begin in March, and the site has already been cleared in preparation. The University is hoping to have the centre operational by the autumn of 2012.
To find out more, visit www.beatsonpebbleappeal.org
