Well I wanted to organise an event, for the experience as it's what I do at uni and what I want to do. I love the idea of a ball personally, so thought it was a good choice. But I had a pretty personal reason for choosing Cancer Research specifically.
In 2000 my grandmother died of cancer, she had a tumour on the base of her spine, and the cancer spread. It was all very quick, 4 weeks from start to finish. So I know first hand how cancer devastates the lives of not only sufferers, but of those around them and that’s why I wanted to raise funds for Cancer Research. If I can do just a little bit to help, then I’ll be happy, that's how I see it.
I initially set my target as £1000, which is enough to fund 4 microarrays which scientists use to compare how active different genes are in cancer cells and healthy cells. I’m thinking about changing my target to £2500 which to give you an idea of how it can help is half the cost of running a three week large scale clinical trial testing whether a drug called celecoxib can help to prevent bladder cancer from returning after treatment. As you can probably tell, it’s something that’s actually quite important to me, so I really want to do this well.
I'd be happy with £1000, but if I can get £2500, even better! I'm going to try and find some corporate sponsors for the event to cover some of the costs and so increase how much goes to Cancer Research.
I might set myself a challenge. That over the next year I want to raise £5800 for Cancer Research, which is the total cost of that 3 week trial. So I'll do the ball. Maybe another event aimed at students at uni. A sponsored... skydive or something. God, I couldn't do that. But something, I don't know. I just want as few people to have to go through it as possible.