Many thanks for visiting our team's JustGiving webpage which has been created to help raise funds for a new National Malanoma Information System.  Team Mont Blanc (Rupert Robinson, Richard Tice, Tim James and Edward Hamilton-Ely) is relying on its experience rather than youth and agility to complete the tough ski challenge of using all 53 lifts in the Meribel Valley on one day - 13th March 2010.  It's a non-stop ski with no pit stops or long lunch up the mountain ............ imagine a 9 hour Ski-Cross with us all on the same side!   It's not a race, apparently.  There is a serious side to the event: sponsorship

Information sharing is paramount in all forms of cancer treatment, but no systematic data collection in a single place has ever been achieved for Melanoma in the UK.  10,000 people are diagnosed each year – a quadrupling since 1970s.   It is the most common cancer in young adults.  Cancer treatment is often based on predictions of spread rate and responsiveness to types of treatment.  Without the raw data, too much is left to chance, in what is a very difficult cancer to treat.   What the database will facilitate is a significant increase in the number of studies regarding epidemiology and outcomes that has not been possible up until now.  The source of much success in cancer treatment has been based off rigorous and high quality clinical trials.

The database will be a unique and defined project.  The total cost will be approximately £200,000.  The treatment centres in the UK are also defined and limited.  Hence the impact this project can have is substantial, and has the support of all the major treatment centres in the UK.  The project will be co-ordinated and supported by the UK Melanoma Study Group.  The funding raised by the Coeur Blanc Ski Challenge will establish the database, and maintain it for the first two years.  Thereafter, individual Trusts and Cancer Networks will commit to the ongoing success of the project.