The Ralph Bates Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund

Newsletter Summer 2019

any thanks to all of you for your donations. We couldn’t do what we’re doing without your generous support. Smaller charities like ours are generally finding fundraising more difficult these days as we don’t have the resources to pursue major events to generate funds, but having said that, your donations are for research into pancreatic cancer, not for fancy glossy publications and mailings. And research is what your kind donations will continue to be spent on.
So, what’s been happening?

As we mentioned in the December 2018 Newsletter, we’ve had to suspend funding the research lead by Prof. Gus Dalgleish at St. George’s, which we had been supporting for some 25 years, due to financial constraints. This research concentrated on combinations of drugs to fight pancreatic cancer and on getting those combinations into the right dosage and order of application. We still have an interest in this research due to our past involvement and it’s pleasing to hear that the research is progressing satisfactorily. Our relationship with Prof. Dalgleish remains strong.

The research being carried out by Dr Androulla Elia elsewhere at St George’s is continuing and the team has now moved into a shiny refurbished laboratory. We have been lucky to have four very keen BSc under-graduates carrying out mini research projects into pancreatic cancer, each of them producing a poster outlining the results of their research.

The involvement of young fresh minds is important, as sometimes the status quo needs to be questioned.

From the left, Pooja, Linh, Yusuf and Lakshini.

This is Linh’s poster, which is far too technical for most of us! It’sused to assess their performance and success in the research and to communicate the results with others.

And what else has been happening?

Pete Salvin ran the Virgin London Marathon in support of our Fund, which was chosen by The Roche School, a leading independent primary school in Wandsworth, South London, as their charity for the year. Pete completed the marathon in four minutes under four hours, despite having a calf injury. A great performance! He raised in excess of £2,700 for our Fund and we’re extremely grateful to him and to The Roche School for their invaluable support.

More about the support given to us from the School in the next Newsletter.

Sorry- no picture of Pete- he was so pleased to have finished the marathon that he completely forgot! We’re not surprised!

We continue to be generously supported by several Masonic Lodges, two of which have adopted our Fund as one of their ongoing Charities. All the funds raised are from Masonic Meetings and events – no collection box rattling! Our sincere thanks for their ongoing interest and support.

And a long-term supporter-Sally Bayliss, who lost her husband, Simon, to pancreatic cancer quite a few years ago- kindly persuaded her colleagues to donate to our Fund a prize they received for decorating their office at Xmas last year. That’s Sally on the right. It looks like it was a great party! Many thanks to Sally and her colleagues.

On a different topic, our own Virginia Bates, Ralph’s widow, had an extremely nasty experience in December last year. Virginia is tirelessly active in raising funds for our Charity, so it was distressing to hear that she had been innocently caught up in the Paris riots whilst making her way from a taxi to her hotel for a fashion event. The Times reported; “…. she was trampled to the ground, kicked and beaten. She almost lost an eye when her head was sliced open by broken glass and suffered a shattered shoulder as she was knocked down by a stampede of protesters”. Virginia is extremely resilient, but it still took her several months to recover. She’s still receiving treatment but well on the way to a satisfactory recovery.

After one day in Paris. Two days before in London. Back to fundraising last month!

It just goes to show – you can’t keep a determined person down, as evidenced by her tenacity and hard work in setting up our Fund and for 27 years, actively pursuing fundraising to find a cure for an awful illness.
Many thanks again for your support. Don’t forget- none of the Trustees are remunerated or claim expenses, so your donation ends up where it should! Take care and have a good summer.

The Trustees.

July 2019.

Making a donation. Donations can be made;

Directly to the Administration address shown below.

By direct transfer to our bank account at:
Sort code; 40-26-07. Account number; 81635190.

Please quote your name as the reference.

By donating online by credit or debit card with either;

MyDonate at www.mydonate.bt.com or

Justgiving at www.justgiving.com/rbpcr/donate or

Virgin Money Giving at www.virginmoneygiving.com.

They all reclaim Gift Aid for us where applicable.

Leaving a Legacy in your Will. If you want to know more about leaving a legacy, please visit our web site at www.ralphbatespcr.org.uk.

Gift Aid. If you are a UK tax payer we can claim 25p from HMRC for every £1 you donate. You can download a Gift Aid declaration from our web site but no need to do this if you donate through one of the web sites named above. They take care of Gift Aid. You must be a UK tax payer and if you pay less Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all your donations in a tax year (April 6 to April 5) it is your responsibility to pay any difference.

Patron: Sir Peter Blake CBE, RDI, RA
Trustees: Virginia Bates, Dr John Glees MD, FRCR, DMRT,
Sharon Sullivan, Michael Bridge FCA,
Nigel Baly BSC, MRICS, Les Biggs ACIS (Secretary).
Registered Charity No. 1007819.

Admin address; 317 Old Bedford Road, Luton, LU2 7BL.
Telephone; 01582 576100 or 07785 281901.
Email; L.Biggs@Ralphbatespcr.org.uk.

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