Intrepid Topic of Cancer Ambassadors, and Tiverton Rotarians, Ivan and Sue Godfrey have raised a staggering £15,000 for the Topic of Cancer over the past 8 years.
The Godfreys first became involved with the charity when they met our founder and president, Nigel Lewis-Baker, during the last leg of his epic John O’Groats to Land’s End fundraising trek. Since then their own Golden Wedding charity adventure cycling between Land’s End and John O’Groats, several charity concerts, various Dartmoor letterbox trails and a cryptic quiz sponsored by Rotary have all helped to raise over £15,000 for ToC.
More about this patient led and totally volunteer run charity, supported by celebrities such as Alison Steadman and Michael Buerk, was explained to the members of the Rotary Club of Tiverton at a recent Zoom meeting by Kim Ronaldson, the current Chair of Trustees of ToC. Both Kim and his wife, Hazel, are cancer sufferers, so there is a very personal feel about the work the charity does, not only medically but in fundraising through its support groups. Kim described the work of the charity as “changing the landscape of cancer treatment”. Kim thanked Sue and Ivan for their commitment and imaginative fundraising for the charity over the past 8 years, and to the Tiverton Rotary Club, along with a number of other clubs across the south-west, which have also been so supportive.
ToC raises funds to support Professor Hardev Pandha and his cancer research team, based at the University of Surrey, in fighting cancer using the body’s immune system. Their internationally acclaimed trials in immunotherapy use live viruses and other approaches to improve treatments and therapies and have resulted in some ground-breaking advances. Their research centre, adjacent to the Royal Surrey County Hospital, allows immediate work on live viruses transported from one to the other. Furthermore, immunotherapy research is so unique and the research centres so few in the UK, that patients become familiar with those actually performing the research.
Kim Ronaldson was thanked on behalf of the Rotary Club by Rotarian Les Rendell who promised that a further donation would be made to Topic of Cancer in appreciation of Kim’s excellent presentation, further cementing the link between the two organisations.