Island Voyagers
Rowing around Great Britain
Fundraising for University of Southampton
Story
All crew members have lost friend and family to cancer so it made perfect sense to us to use our challenge of rowing around Britain as a way to increase the awareness of the work that is being done and raise some money towards the new building.
The University of Southampton is raising £25m to open the UK's first dedicated Centre for Cancer Immunology at Southampton.
The University of Southampton leads the UK in cancer immunology research and is on the cusp of exciting breakthroughs in curing cancer. Your immune system is the best weapon you have against disease but cancer cells are ingenious and hard to defeat. Immunotherapy is a revolutionary new treatment, supercharging the body's natural defences to seek out and destroy cancer. What's more, it can offer a lifetime of immunity to that cancer.
With Southampton's unique 'bench to bedside' approach, discoveries are now moving out of the laboratory and into life-saving cancer treatments, with outstanding results in clinical trials. Over half of patients, with hard to beat cancers such as lung and melanoma, are seeing significant improvements with immunotherapy and 20 per cent are living cancer free. With one in two of us now predicted to get cancer in the UK, this research offers new hope.
Building on these amazing developments and Southampton’s unrivalled expertise, the University has launched a major fundraising campaign to open a world-leading research centre at Southampton General Hospital – due to open in 2018. The state-of-the-art Centre will be the first of its kind in the UK, connecting global specialists with cutting-edge facilities in one dedicated, interdisciplinary hub. The new Centre will welcome over 50 new staff and by the time it is fully operational will double the number of patient clinical trials. By pooling knowledge and extending resources, the Centre aims to accelerate research progress and save more lives from cancer.
Your body holds the cure to cancer and your support can make this happen.
How to get involved:
* Find out more about the campaign at www.southampton.ac.u
* Follow them on social media - www.facebook.com/Cent