Christopher's Smile
Christopher’s story is featured in Cancer Voices. Since this was published in our centenary year of 2009, the Trustees of Christopher’s Smile, Kevin and Karen Capel, have made a tremendous impact on the ICR’s research into childhood cancers.
Their initial goal was to raise enough money to fund a Scientific Officer for a year within the Paediatric Drug Development Team. They have not only managed this, but have gone on to fund this position for a second year and pledged more than £195,000 over three years to fund a Post-Doctoral Training Fellow within the same team. Additionally they have helped purchase several pieces of equipment for the ICR paediatric labs and for the new children’s ward in the Royal Marsden Hospital.
Through this funding the ICR has been able to coordinate a number of pre-clinical studies specifically investigating three major types of agents, all three of which – focusing on the MYCN gene implicated in paediatric solid tumours - have significant possibilities of going into clinical trials. In total, nine agents have been tested so far. With the new Post-Doc in position we will be able to identify in the laboratory which anti-cancer agents have the greatest chance of these being effective in children with cancer.
Kevin and Karen Capel said of their support for the ICR, “Our vision is for every child diagnosed with childhood cancer not only to survive, but to reach adulthood enjoying a good quality of life. We know that current treatments for children do not provide the levels of efficacy and safety to deliver our vision. Christopher’s Smile funds projects which we hope will ultimately result in the introduction of new targeted treatments which will be much more effective and less toxic than those currently in front line use.”
For more information visit the Christopher’s Smile website.
