Congratulations on completing the London to Paris ride earlier this year, we just wanted to thank you and communicate the difference the money you have raised has made.
Thank you for raising a fantastic £72,022 and congratulations on completing the London to Paris Challenge once again this year.
This is the equivalent of funding a clinical research nurse for two years at Hammersmith Hospital as part of the Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP). This nurse will support patients entered into one of our ground-breaking clinical trials that deliver new treatments.
Clinical trials are vital for moving breakthroughs discovered in the laboratory into new treatments. Clinical trials give patients access to new drugs and allow our researchers to make breakthroughs in treatments and outcomes. Trials give patients who do not respond to conventional drugs the chance to try new or alternative treatments; however the problem is that only 6% of blood cancer patients take part in clinical trials in the UK compared with up to 18% for patients of other forms of cancer. Clinical trials are essential in improving our understanding of blood cancers and in discovering new cures and treatments. Without clinical trials, progress cannot be made for patients in the future.
Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research understand the importance and impact that clinical trials can have to quality of life and survival rates of blood cancer patients. To that end we have launched a world leading and unique network of clinical trials centres within our Trials Acceleration Programme, which will give blood cancer patients access to new life-saving drugs, sooner to improve survival rates and quality of life. We have selected 13 treatment centres around the UK; coordinated by a central hub in Birmingham to set up more blood cancer clinical trials, quicker than ever before. TAP will see blood cancer clinical trials being completed within two years; the extensive paper work and bureaucracy surrounding clinical trials mean that currently these can take anything up to ten years to complete. In the first year we have seen six trials enter the TAP network giving up to 570 patients access to potentially lifesaving drugs.
Nigel Dixon – London “Without research, I might not be here; I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in May 2006 and had chemotherapy straightaway, which unfortunately did not completely eradicate the tumour. I needed more intense chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, which was successful. However in January 2008, a scan revealed another tumour and I started radiotherapy. Thankfully, this worked and I had the ‘all clear’ that July. I was over the moon! I’ve now been in remission for just over two years and I’m still fit and healthy. I hope that my story shows patients who have setbacks in their treatment that there is always hope. Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research is still very close to my heart – without its research I might not be here today.”
So thank you for your continued support and dedication to helping beat blood cancers, together we are closer to a cure. If you would like any more information on Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research or about how to get involved please get in touch.
