Cancer fundraising campaign marks first anniversary of Steve Jobs' death
Howard Lake | 8 October 2012 | News
A team of “guerrilla fundraisers” has launched a global campaign to raise £2 million to fund research into a potential treatment for the cancer that killed Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. The iCancer campaign was launched on the first anniversary of his death, 5 October.
The potential therapy, a virus, is being stored in Sweden, but can not be tested because, say the iCancer team, “big business won’t stump up the £2million needed to fund the first stage of trials, because there is no money to be made”.
The virus’ creator, Prof Magnus Essand of Uppsala University, says the £2 million will bring the virus to the point where a big pharmaceuticals company can take it over, test it, patent it, bring it to full-scale development and make a profit.
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The iCancer team are appealing to people to raise the money using Twitter and Facebook. There are using crowdfunding site Indiegogo.
The campaign is led by author Alexander Masters who wrote the bestseller ‘Stuart: A Life Backwards’ and Dominic Nutt, who has the same cancer as Steve Jobs.
Masters said: “I am deeply frustrated. There is a potential treatment – a virus that destroys this cancer in lab experiments. But it is sitting in a fridge in a research lab in Sweden waiting to be tested in humans. It only needs £2million to run the trial. That’s less than Apple earned in the first three minutes after launching the iPhone5.”
Fellow iCancer campaigner Liz Scarff said: ““There is no wristband, no rock concert and no money. Everybody has been touched by cancer. This campaign is about people around the world coming together to try to beat it, in a different way. We want people to donate direct to the research project in Sweden, through twitter.”
The campaign has already raised $34,390 with 40 days to go.
www.iCancer.org.uk
Photo: noppyfoto on Flickr.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.