Member Article

Newcastle University campaign boosted by £50k Benfield Motor Group funding

A £50k donation from one of the North East’s leading family businesses will help Newcastle University to further strengthen the region’s reputation as a centre for excellence in childhood cancer research.

Benfield Motor Group has pledged the generous gift through its Benfield Charitable Trust to help Future Fund campaigners take a step closer to realising their ambition to create the £5.5 million Newcastle University Centre for Childhood Cancer.

This new specialist facility will provide state-of-the-art resources where clinical and research teams from across the city can come together to advance and accelerate their understanding of how to treat childhood cancers.

The Future Fund is a partnership between Newcastle University, Newcastle Hospitals’ Great North Children’s Hospital (GNCH) and North of England Children’s Cancer Research (NECCR), a charity set up by parents of children with cancer and which has raised £20 million for research in Newcastle over the past 35 years.

The £50k gift from Benfield was pledged by the company’s owners the Squires family after learningof the NECCR’s involvement with the campaign and its goal to position Newcastle at the centre of the global fight against childhood cancer.

The pledge brings the campaign total to £2 million and it follows endorsement from North East heroes including Sting, Mark Knopfler and David Almond.

The planned Newcastle University Centre for Childhood Cancer will be established in the heart of the Newcastle University campus and will help the city retain key staff and attract additional internationally recognised experts in the field.

Work will focus on developing therapies with fewer side effects and treatments for children with advanced cancer or those whose cancer has come back.

Chief Executive at Benfield, Mark Squires, said: “As a family business which hails from the North East we are absolutely delighted to support this worthwhile campaign.

“The Future Fund is going from strength to strength with fantastic support from many local businesses in our joint bid to beat childhood cancer.

“The money we have donated through Benfield Charitable Trust will be going directly towards the new centre, helping Newcastle become the centre of excellence for children’s cancer research.”

Chairman of NECCR, Chris Peacock, said: “We are delighted that the Squires family have donated such a significant sum to help lead the battle against children’s cancer.

“Having a state-of-the-art research centre will only further the world class work being done here in Newcastle. Ultimately it will lead to faster diagnoses and less toxic treatments of this terrible disease. We can’t thank them enough for helping us towards our target.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Fiona Kay .