Ben Foster Backs Cure Leukaemia’s ‘We Will’ Campaign To Fund Nurses Across the UK
Optimum is very proud to support Cure Leukaemia, the blood cancer charity, and the brilliant work they do. On International Nurses Day, 12th May, and the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth, we take this opportunity to thank and recognise the bravery, kindness and dedication of the wonderful men and women working tirelessly to help others.
In the UK, a person is diagnosed with blood cancer every 14 minutes. Cure Leukaemia was established in 2003 by Professor Charlie Craddock CBE and patients Graham Silk and Michael Woolley to allow patients with blood cancer to access the remarkably effective new treatments which were then becoming available.
Cure Leukaemia fund specialist research nurses at 12 blood cancer centres across the UK to form the national Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP) network which covers a catchment area of over 20 million people. These nurses enable pioneering clinical trials for blood cancer to run allowing patients the chance to access potentially life-saving treatments whilst also hastening global progress towards finding effective treatments for all forms of blood cancer.
Today, on International Nurses Day, and at a time when clinical trials are being discussed on a daily basis regarding the COVID-19 crisis, Cure Leukaemia is keen to highlight how the crisis could impact blood cancer patients if clinical trial networks such as the Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP) are not funded. The TAP is also running a COVID-19 clinical trial for patients with acute myeloid leukaemia and this trial simply would not be possible without the infrastructure of the nurses within the network.
Cure Leukaemia today launches the ‘We Will Campaign’ – Watford FC goalkeeper and Cure Leukaemia Patron Ben Foster has given his backing to the national blood cancer charity’s ‘We Will’ campaign to mark International Nurses Day 2020. Cure Leukaemia has created a dedicated JustGiving page which includes individual fundraising pages for each of the 12 funded centres.
Please find more inspirational stories here and a video message from 24 year old acute lymphoblastic leukaemia survivor Nurse Brooke Evans who is fronting the campaign and who’s story has inspired Ben and many others. Read more
