NEPAC would like to thank Sue and Paul Cross for their tremendous fundraising efforts this year. Continuing NEPAC’s theme of raising money through music, Sue Cross has so far raised nearly £2000 through recorder playing. Parents sponsor her to teach their children and the children give small concerts.

Paul Cross got rather wet walking coast to coast along Hadrian's Wall in August raising £2000 for NEPAC. It took him five days - here he is at the completion

and here he is at Sewingshields, the highest point.

Lord Mayor’s Award for NEPAC Founder, Rosalynde Walker

Congratulations to Rosalynde on being one of three recipients of a Lord Mayor’s Award this year.  These awards are given to residents of Newcastle upon Tyne to celebrate and recognise the contribution they have made to life in the City.  The contribution must be exceptional and be in a voluntary capacity.  Rosalynde has devoted enormous energy to NEPAC for over 20 years during which £1.25m has been raised for cancer research and patient care, and she is a most worthy recipient of this Award.  She will receive the Award at a ceremony at the Mansion House in May. 

BUPA Great North Run 2010 raises £5800 for NEPAC

Our 17 runners raised the magnificent sum of £5800, every penny of which will go to cancer research and care in the NE.  We are most grateful to them and their sponsors for their support.  The runners included Kirsty Robson who was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2002 at the age of 34.  She has recovered well and is clearly fit again thanks largely to the treatment she has received at the RVI, through Professor Proctor.

The George Walker Fellowship

With your help over the years in supporting the George Walker Non-Hodgkin’s Appeal, NEPAC is now in a position to half fund a Fellowship in George’s memory.  Dr Venetia Bigley has been appointed to the four year full time post in the Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University and took up the post on 1 January 2011.  

Venetia graduated in Natural Sciences at Cambridge before converting to medicine at UCL.  After clinical work in various London hospitals, she moved to Newcastle in 2004 to pursue her training in haematology.  She has just completed this, as well as a PhD in Professor Collin’s laboratory within the Academic Haematology group, founded by Professor Proctor.

Her primary clinical interest is in haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (bone marrow transplant) and its use in the treatment of lymphoma, as some 50% of patients who receive a bone marrow transplant now do so to treat lymphoma. In the research field, she is particularly interested in the immune system in haematological disease and specifically a type of cell called a dendritic cell which plays a key role in a healthy immune system and is believed to be involved both in the development of haematological cancers and potentially in their cure.  These cells also have a close link with another immune cell, the B-cell, which is the malignant cell in lymphoma.  She plans to extend recently developed techniques to lymphoma research, including Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, to better understand how the immune system is altered in lymphoma, why bone marrow transplant treatment is proving so successful and how to further improve outcomes.  We wish her every success in her research and look forward to reporting some results in future newsletters.

Venetia would like to extend her sincere thanks to all who have worked so hard to make funding of this post possible.  She is very much looking forward to the next four years in Newcastle and the exciting opportunities this post has created.  A further reason for being thrilled to have developed links with NEPAC is her interest in music, which is also at the heart of NEPAC, as a violinist and singer with local groups.

NEPAC has a new Office

We have moved from Rosalynde’s home to a room in the offices of our Treasurer, Peter Willey, in Stamfordham Road, Westerhope.  It is equipped with new computing facilities and we hope the move will lead to the smoother running of NEPAC affairs.  Full details of the new address and telephone number are:

Bainbridge House, 379 Stamfordham Road, Westerhope, Newcastle upon Tyne NE5 2LH

T: 0191 597 8675

Please leave a message on the answerphone if we are unable to take your call and we will get back to you as soon as possible.