Pamela's Blog

Court Lunch, Worshipful Company of Needlemakers, Wednesday January 11, 2012

2012-01-24T16:28:00.003Z

I have been fairly busy since my Installation in October so it felt slightly surprising to realise that this was my first Court Meeting as Master and first formal Needlemakers’ event.

I have chaired many meetings, large and small, but there is something a bit daunting about chairing a meeting where half the people have already done your job – the Past Masters who sit on the Court - and the other half are looking for some inspiration!

The committees appointed by the Court do most of the work; a Court member chairs each committee and reports back to the full Court. The role of the Court is to check, challenge and approve – or not as the case may be. There is a lot to be said for the combination of wiser, older heads who have probably seen most things before - several times in fact - and the newer members of the Court who bring fresh energy and ideas.

I am delighted that we have a number of new Liverymen joining the Company over the next few months, something that is so important if we are to thrive. I look forward to writing about them in due course.

The meeting was followed by an excellent lunch (well, I chose the menu so all my favourites were there) in the Butchers’ Hall. This is our “home” hall and we hold two functions there every year. It is one of the newer Livery Halls and is very light and bright.

We were pleased to welcome the Masters of the Apothecaries (58), the Feltmakers (63), the Tinplate Workers (67) and the Environmental Cleaners (97). The numbers in brackets are the order of precedence. As we process on formal occasions we line up in order so I get to know the Feltmakers and Tinplate Workers rather well as they are close to our order number of 65! As you can see both old and modern companies were represented.

Our speaker was Sandra Smith, Head of Conservation at the Victoria and Albert Museum. I was so carried away by introducing her that I sat down before formally proposing the toast to the guests – gently reminded by the Beadle. The V&A is one of my favourite museums. When I have visitors, especially from abroad, and I don’t know what their interests are, I know that this museum will have something to catch their attention – from ancient artefacts to lively and contemporary exhibitions.

Sandra is very modest about her considerable achievements. However, her enthusiasm and knowledge were evident to all and we have been delighted to support individuals at the museum in a small way through our charitable fund. We are currently funding a travel bursary for a young trainee in the Textiles Conservation department, one of the ten departments that Sandra heads.

Textile lunch with the Dyers

2012-01-15T19:37:00.001Z

One of the joys of this year is that I am seeing a number of Livery Halls for the first time. I have visited most of the large ones as they lend themselves to corporate and private events. Our daughter was married at the Stationers’ Hall which is one I particularly like. I have not visited many of the smaller halls and there are some jewels.

The Dyers’ Hall is one of those jewels: Monday, January 9 was a most interesting and excellent lunch hosted by the Worshipful Company of Dyers for those companies involved in textiles or related industries. The Lord Mayor, Alderman David Wootton, is himself a Woolman and attended the lunch. He spoke about his desire that the Livery Companies should more actively promote and publicise the charitable work that they do and the purpose of the lunch was for us to share our experiences with each other.

The Companies varied in size and resources but it was clear that we were all actively engaged in supporting education and training. This mirrors the work of the Livery Companies as a whole: in 2010 of the approximately £42 million given by the Companies to charitable causes, 51 per cent went to education.

The support from those at the lunch ranged through schools to universities and some creative opportunities where new graduates would be subsidised into their first employment. There was a concern that the focus has moved away from technical training and that, for example, there are many designers but not enough people to programme the machines on which the cloth is woven. (This echoes the lecture I went to earlier by the Horners who talked about the lack of polymer engineers in the UK.)

It is early days to see how we can collectively add value to what we are each doing individually but certainly the support we give to, for example, the Royal School of Needlework, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal College of Art and Fine Cell Work all focus on furthering skills.

A footnote about the Dyers’ Company – one of their more unusual activities is taking part in the Queen’s annual Swan-Upping on the river Thames in July each year with the Worshipful Company of Vintners – you can see something about it on their website, link above. Immediate Past Master, Roger Staines, hosted a very pleasant day on the river in July 2011 where we watched the action.

Lord Mayor’s Children’s Fancy Dress Party at the Mansion House

2012-01-10T22:02:00.006Z

Accompanied by two hippies, Darth Vader and a toy soldier, I set out for the Mansion House on Saturday, January 7. The occasion was the annual Lord Mayor’s Children’s Fancy Dress Party for about 600 children.

The entire focus was on the children who were all presented to the Mayoral party (while the adults were shown around the side). As you would expect it ran with military precision and the children were not only well entertained and fed but also extraordinarily well behaved. Many of the stewards were drawn from the current and former staff with other volunteers who kept everything running very smoothly.

I will never look at the magnificent Egyptian Hall in quite the same way after seeing 600 children leaping up and down, giving three cheers for the Lord Mayor (louder, louder they were exhorted!) and then doing the hokey cokey followed by a conga around the Mansion House led by the Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs. I have it all on film.

The Lord Mayor was accompanied by his full entourage and also his formal escort drawn from The Company of Pikemen & Musketeers of the Honourable Artillery Company. They were dressed in a uniform dating back to Charles I and very splendid they looked too as you can see below.

It was an amazing afternoon and all four grandchildren - two of whom had come from Switzerland for the occasion – said it was the best party they had ever attended! It was certainly the biggest and possibly the noisiest and we had a wonderful afternoon.

Postscript to the Needlemakers’ Carol Service

2012-01-05T21:49:00.002Z

It is a month since the very successful Needlemakers' Carol Service on December 6. One of the traditions of this service is that we all bring gifts for children that are added to at other services and then distributed by the Salvation Army in Chelsea through agencies such as social services, mental health support teams and children support groups.

Major Sally Spry, Commanding Officer – Chelsea Corps, wrote, “On behalf of The Salvation Army in Chelsea, may I thank you all on behalf of the many children and families who were helped through your generous giving. We have supplied well over 800 gifts this year and we couldn’t do it without you and your support.”

“As the social worker who asked for gifts this year stated: “this year has been so hard for so many of the people we work with. With tears in their eyes your gifts were received on behalf of those in need.”

It is quite humbling to read that something, which cost all of us relatively little in effort and money, could have such an impact.

At the Old Bailey, but not in handcuffs......

2012-01-05T21:29:00.002Z

Happy New Year and let’s hope that 2012 ends more auspiciously than 2011!

We have just returned from a super two weeks in Switzerland with Number One Daughter and her family and much cheese, chocolate and wurst (not in that order) was eaten by all.

My first formal engagement was on Thursday January 5, which was lunch with Sheriff Wendy Mead at The Old Bailey. (For my American readers – the Sheriff wears a red gown and chain – not a Stetson and silver star.)

The Central Criminal Court, which is in Old Bailey, hence the name, stands on the site of the West Gate of the Roman City of London and the medieval gate on which the notorious Newgate Prison was built. The Court’s jurisdiction includes not only the City of London but also all of England and Wales and British ships abroad.

The description states “the Court attracted to it the most notorious of criminals, the most odious of crimes, the most eloquent of advocates and some of the finest judges” and of course it is the most famous Court in England.

Sheriff Mead hosted the lunch with the Alderman on Duty. As well as the guests there were also a number of Judges and Recorders – twenty of us in all. It was a lovely and relaxed occasion and the discussion ranged over a number of subjects. I was delighted to find that the judge on my right was also from Johannesburg and went to the “brother” school of my own school so we could compare notes. (I doubt that the seating was by chance!)

We also commented on the significant contribution that South Africans have made to the law in the UK with three Law Lords and what a brain drain there was from South Africa in earlier decades.

There was a chance to go and observe one of the cases being heard but I have done this before so declined. Of course yesterday this would have been impossible as judgment was given on the Stephen Lawrence murder – an end to only one chapter of the story.

Click here to read more about Sheriff Wendy Mead and here to read about The Old Bailey.

Christmas Cheer in the Hunterian Museum

2011-12-12T18:23:00.000Z

It doesn’t sound very Christmassy to be celebrating with drinks and snacks surrounded by skulls, skeletons and odd things in bottles. However, if you attend a Christmas drinks party at the Royal College of Surgeons you will be.

I was very happy to represent the Needlemakers Company at the annual Christmas drinks party at the College on Wednesday December 7. We sponsor young surgeons with travel bursaries through the College every year, something which is greatly valued as they exit their very expensive and lengthy years of training. I was delighted to meet members of the Council, other sponsors and some of the people who work at the College and the Museum. (I have a personal interest too as, when I was with Breast Cancer Campaign, we sponsored the tutor for the advanced breast surgery courses which the College ran at a time when few surgeons were choosing that as a field of study.)

If you have never visited the Hunterian Museum it is an exceptional collection, superbly presented. They also run excellent programmes for children during the holidays – so have a look.

Needlemakers’ Carol Service with the Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers

2011-12-11T11:22:00.002Z

For the first time this year we had a combined service with the G&S Wyre Drawers on Tuesday, December 6. It was a very joyous occasion with the honours and duties shared out amongst the two companies, our respective chaplains and the Priest-in-Charge at our home church, St James Garlickhythe.

The church is a beautiful 17^thCentury Church occupying a place that has been sacred since 1100. Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt St James in 1683 to be full of light, since when it has become known as ‘Wren’s Lantern’. It is not a very large church and between the two companies we filled it comfortably. The choir was in excellent form – as was the congregation.

It is a tradition of our company that we bring gifts to put under the Christmas tree, which are then distributed to underprivileged children. It was lovely to see a pile of beautifully wrapped presents each with a removable label indicating for what age child it is suitable.

We then walked to a local restaurant for an excellent and very jolly dinner. On a personal note it was lovely to spend some time with Vernon Knapper, the Master G&S Wyre Drawer and Christina (she and I share a passion for crime fiction). It was also good to catch up with the Needlemakers’ Chaplain, the Rt Reverend Christopher Chessun, The Bishop of Southwark, about his recent visit to Zimbabwe with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

I spent five years at a Church of England school in South Africa and enjoyed the carol singing there and enjoyed hearing some familiar songs and some new ones on Tuesday. Lord Sacks, the Chief Rabbi told the Scottish Parliament “Jewish and other faith communities love the fact that Christians celebrate Christmas. When I go to Trafalgar Square and hear carols being sung I feel uplifted.” I agree with him – where religious institutions preach love and caring for others does it matter what denomination they are? We are alone with our thoughts when we pray.

Whether the next few weeks are ‘shop till you drop’, time in church, candles and chocolate money for Chanukah or just a few days off work with family and friends – may they be peaceful and time to recharge your batteries.

Celebrating 600 years of the Guildhall and 1000 years of the City of London

2011-12-06T11:23:00.003Z

I don’t want you to think that my life as Master at the moment is one long social whirl – it is, but I just don’t want you to think that. I am managing to squeeze some work in as well but perhaps I will write about that at another time.

Monday, December 6, was a lecture at Guildhall by Dr Simon Thurley, CE of English Heritage, to celebrate the 600^th anniversary of Guildhall. He also wrote and presented the TV series, The buildings that shaped Britain, and brought the same verve and scholarship to this subject as he did to that. This was followed by a reception where the canapés were derived from recipes marking the different centuries. (I didn’t have the 20^th Century canapés, which looked suspiciously like prawn cocktail, but the 19^th Century was Beef Wellington, of course.)

There was so much information packed into Dr Thurley’s lecture that I can’t even scratch the surface. The Guildhall is certainly a treasure of the City – a treasure in stone. It is the oldest secular building in the City – how many buildings built 600 years ago are still in use for their original purpose? It was part of a campaign of civic and public improvement started in the first half of the 15^th century and was commissioned by the then Mayor, one Richard (aka Dick) Whittington. There have been changes and improvements since then but the Guildhall is still not only the physical heart of the City, sitting over Bank station, but also the civic heart.

This was followed by the launch of, London 1000 Years, Treasures from the Collections of the City of London, by David Pearson, Director of Culture, Heritage and Libraries at the City of London Corporation. The City Corporation is the custodian of a significant part of the nation’s and particularly London’s heritage. Its records go back to the Norman Conquest in almost unbroken sequence. You can access images of every major London event, for example, from paintings of the Great Fire of London to the Blitz during WWII.

Some of the treasures were on display including a very poignant letter from John Keats to his fiancée, Fanny Brawne, after the onset of the TB which eventually killed him telling her not to visit him today - Keats House in Hampstead is managed by the Corporation. There was also the Lloyds loss and casualty book showing the entry covering the fate of the ship, the Mary (Marie) Celeste.

The book brings us right up to the present time as the archives also include very moving letters and notes pinned up at various sites in London after the bombing of the Underground in 2005 and more cheerfully a very early book by Fanny Cradock and review notes of the book by Elizabeth David.

The Future of Digital – Worshipful Company of Marketors Annual Lecture

2011-12-06T00:10:00.002Z

There are a number of things to you can do to persuade people to attend your events: two of them are - have a stunning venue and have a world-class speaker who they would never otherwise get to hear. The Worshipful Company of Marketors did both on Friday, December 2^nd.

The venue was the magnificent Goldsmiths’ Hall. I have been there several times and anyone can visit their special exhibitions but any excuse to go back – it is a stunning venue.

The speaker was Jeannette Liendo, the Global Director, Corporate Marketing for Microsoft. She is a most impressive individual with a truly global view having lived on several continents and worked in a range of markets. We know that it is free enterprise that will drive the recovery and this is dependent on the vision to innovate. I liked the quote she used from Theodore Levitt, “Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.” We have a long history of innovative science in the UK – not such a good history of exploiting it commercially to its full potential.

I will share a secret with you: in my days as an analyst during the technology boom of the eighties, the techspeak of the management of companies sometimes outran my knowledge. I would write notes as fast as I could and find the technical information afterwards. Companies would always say that they had leading edge technology – we also said that it was bleeding edge technology – bleeding away the money.

However, back to the lecture: we were shown the future of computing and communication and about two thirds of the way through I was lost – and my writing skills could not keep up. The answer is in the Cloud. If you want to learn more look at Microsoft Innovation.

I did reflect that Bill and Melinda Gates in their charitable work are very similar to the wealthy benefactors of times past who not only gave substantial amounts of money but also had a vision of how that money could transform society. It is beyond giving to charity it is having a vision of how the world could be different, in their case a vision of a world without malaria. I am reminded of Sir Henry Wellcome who left all the shares in his company to found a trust, which today celebrates its 75^th anniversary. Similarly the Livery Companies had a huge impact on education in this country with the founding of many schools – and still continue.

Much to think about and congratulations to the Marketors for arranging such a stimulating evening!

Gloves, clementines and a new hat

2011-11-29T10:36:00.002Z

The Christmas season is definitely here. Last night, November 28, I attended the preview of the Red Cross Christmas market at the Guildhall. The last time I attended it was when Margaret Thatcher was PM and I was speechless for the first time in my life. I was trying on a pair of gloves and a woman next to me said “I do like a bright pair of gloves to brighten up a dark suit”. I looked up and it was the PM and I was so surprised I was rendered mute and she was whisked away before I recovered.

The event was opened by the Lady Mayoress and Lord Fellowes (much mention of Downtown Abbey). The stalls were run by a combination of the Livery Companies and some commercial ventures. I donated one of my needle cases to the Forum UK stall as well as a pair of designer shoes which I bought on a charity auction but found the heels were too high. They were the first item sold and now have raised money for two charities. Mei Sim Lai, the Chair of Forum UK, is also Master World Trader this year

I visited the Worshipful Company of Glovers’ stall again and bought another pair of gloves – superb leather, warmly lined and will do for a few years. John and I visited the Fruiterers’ stall where we bought the most amazing clementines and then, of course, the Feltmakers where the Master Feltmaker helped me choose a hat – I only have one “proper” hat so this was a big decision. The rest of my shopping will remain a secret till either Chanukah or Christmas!

I am off this afternoon to help on the Forum UK stand – hopefully everything will have been sold!

Celebrating music

2011-11-28T13:36:00.001Z

Last week started with an amazing performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony at the Albert Hall on November 21. This monumental work is rarely performed because of the numbers needed. There were 1,000 performers with a 116 strong orchestra, four choirs (the Barts choir, the New London Singers, Wimbledon Choral Society and a children’s choir) and the full force of the Albert Hall’s organ. Friends of ours sing in the Barts choir and we were delighted to support them and hear this incredible performance.

Wednesday, November 23 was the annual service in aid of the Musicians Benevolent Fund to celebrate the Festival of Saint Cecilia at Westminster Cathedral. The Masters, Wardens and Clerks of the Livery Companies process into the church in gowns and chains and it is a very colourful sight – and gathers a crowd of slightly mystified tourists.

The service is always beautiful and the Worshipful Company of Musicians commissions a new work each year: it is lovely to hear the traditional combined with the new. The Festival gives thanks and celebrates music and musicians. Whatever one’s religious beliefs a few moments in a beautiful place of worship listening to wonderful music are very worthwhile.

The story of Saint Cecilia is somewhat terrifying and I leave you to read about it.

The Needlemakers (in the person of the Clerk!) always arranges a lunch at a local restaurant or hotel for those Liverymen and their guests attending the service and this year we had an excellent lunch and enjoyable time at the Mint Hotel in Westminster.

From Horns to Mrs Robinson!

2011-11-28T13:09:00.002Z

The Worshipful Company of Horners is both an ancient guild and a modern City institution. The working of horn declined over the centuries (although there is one modern use of horn that is carried through from biblical times – the shofar that is blown on the Jewish New Year. This is traditionally made from a ram’s horn.)

However, as the industry declined, the Company had the vision, in 1943, of adopting the manufacturing and use of the modern equivalent – plastics! Hence my headline – for those of us old enough to remember the classic film “The Graduate” – Benjamin, played by Dustin Hoffman is told that for his future there is only one word “plastics”.

This advice still holds good as the plastics industry is a major feature of the UK economy with over 7,000 companies and there is a shortage of qualified engineers.

John and I attended the Horners’ annual lecture and dinner on the 17^th November. The lecture was in memory of a former Master, Ralph Anderson, who not only made his fortune in plastics but left a substantial bequest to the Company to support their educational interests, particularly science eduation.

A point of interest for the Needlemakers is that Ralph Anderson’s early career was spent with the British Homophone Company which made gramophone records in the 1930s – for which needles are still available from Needle Industries in India on special order!

The Master, David Williams, has had a most distinguished career in the plastics industry and took us on a whistle-stop tour of the current state of the industry, manufacturing trends – not only reducing the weight of cars thus reducing fuel consumption, but doing the same for aeroplanes with similar savings. Also a very interesting insight into the possibilities of recycling – plastic need not go to landfill and the goal is that no plastics go to landfill by 2020. Their mantra is ‘re-use, recycle, recover’. If you want to know a bit more then have a look at Ralph Anderson lecture.

This was followed by a buffet dinner, all held at the Royal Society of Medicine.

Worshipful Company of Actuaries

2011-11-21T16:42:00.002Z

In company with a number of other Masters I went from the Lord Mayor’s Address to the Livery at Mansion House to the Worshipful Company of Actuaries lecture and dinner at Staple Inn Hall on November 16.

This segued quite nicely from the Lord Mayor’s theme of “Fit for the Future” as the speaker was Lord Moynihan, Chairman of the British Olympic Association and was entitled “2012 An Olympic Dream – can the games delivery a sporting legacy for the United Kingdom”

I am an Olympic grump. I didn’t want the Games and object, as a Londoner, to paying for it forever. However, I will admit that I visited the site a few months ago and was hugely impressed with the clean-up work that has been done, which would not have been done otherwise, and the facilities are more complete at this stage than we might have thought possible.

I was further convinced by Lord Moynihan: for the first time I understood the structure of how the planning was done, why the site was chosen and what the legacy is already. Not only the clean-up of the site, the complete redesign of the waterways which were heavily polluted, transport infrastructure – all this in place.

His challenge is to deliver for the athletes – and the athletes to deliver for the public who expect much from them. I have reams of notes with many fascinating insights into what has happened and is happening.

He had been in the news during the day regarding the UK’s stand on doping. The UK is under pressure from the World Anti-Doping Agency to relax its stand on disqualification for life for athletes who knowingly take drugs. This is not the athlete who unknowingly takes something that proves to contain a banned substance but one who knows what they are doing. We will see how this plays out in the courts.

Staple Inn Hall is a beautiful gem of a Hall a moment’s walk from the din and traffic of High Holborn close to Chancery Lane underground station. It has some beautiful stained glass windows and was substantially restored after WWII.

I had a delicious buffet dinner and the opportunity to meet some of my fellow Masters and some of the Liverymen of the Actuaries. The Master Actuary said that we all had to do some mental arithmetic (they are actuaries after all) and you might want to try this one. Add the last two digits of the year of your birth and your age – the answer should come to 111.

PS Tried this with the grandchildren, – where the answer is 11 not 111. This includes the newest one who is a few months old i.e. 0 + 11 = 11.

Lord Mayor’s Address to the Livery

2011-11-20T21:45:00.003Z

Alderman David Wootton, our new Lord Mayor addressed a gathering of most of the Masters and Clerks of the Livery Companies at Mansion House on November 16. This is a challenging time to be coming into the Mayoralty with the volatile and challenging economic situation, the difficult situation at St Paul’s, but offset by the positive excitement of the Queen’s Jubilee and the 2012 Olympics.

He said “I look forward to participating in the wider public debate, of which the City is part: about the structure of our economy, and about the role of the City within it. I look forward to shining a light on these issues.”

The civic City does good work quietly – perhaps too quietly. He urged all of us present to shout a bit louder about the good work we do, particularly where work is done outside the City and mentioned the Mercers’ support for the new Academy in Hammersmith and the Carpenters’ support for a building crafts centre in Newham.

The Needlemakers awards a number of prizes to a diverse range of organisations connected with the City or the users of needles. These range from both the City of London schools, the Guildhall School of Music, the Royal College of Surgeons, Fine Cell Work, Royal School of Needlework, to mention but a few.

The Lord Mayor's Appeal for his year fits well with an Olympic year - “Fit for the Future”. The Lord Mayor’s Appeal 2012 will help five charities – the primary being Barts and The London Charity on behalf of the Trauma Unit at The Royal London Hospital. The Rowing Foundation, London Youth Rowing, Fields in Trust and Futures for Kids will also benefit, creating a healthier future for all.

Ladies Banquet

2011-11-20T21:24:00.001Z

John and I were delighted to be guests at the Ladies Banquet of the Needlemakers Lodge on Saturday November 12. About twenty of the Livery Companies have their own Lodges and the current President, Stuart Selwyn, has visited them all during his year.

It was a very enjoyable and friendly evening – after all we knew most of the people there, as they were Liverymen and their guests. We were not only treated to dinner but also excellent musical entertainment.

Both John’s and my families have Masonic connections – my maternal grandfather and his father were both Masons, and indeed Masters of their respective Lodges although this is something that we never discussed – the work of the Freemasons is much more open these days which is a good thing.

Stuart spoke about the similarities between the aims of the Livery Company and of the Lodge – in our ethos and our actions, particularly in charitable support.

On a less serious note, I commented that it has always surprised me that Freemasonry is restricted to men. Women and freemasons have so much in common. We are a mystery to anyone that isn’t one of us; we are frequently misunderstood and much of our good work is done behind the scenes.

As it was a Ladies Night I ended with one of my favourite quotes – from Eleanor Roosevelt

“A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”

The Silent Ceremony

2011-11-20T21:09:00.001Z

The Silent Ceremony takes place the day before the Lord Mayor’s Show when the Lord Mayor is formally admitted to office and this was Friday November 11. The ceremony is known as the Silent Ceremony because, apart from a short declaration of office by the incoming Lord Mayor, no words are spoken. The outgoing Lord Mayor ceremonially hands the City insignia to his successor.

What I had not realized is that this takes place “on the flat” not on the stage in Guildhall so unless you are seated close to the action or are tall, once the procession has passed you have no idea what is going on (it's silent!). Note for next time – bring large cushion!

I did not go to the Lord Mayor’s Show this year as we had grandchildren responsibilities in the morning and an engagement in the evening (yes it does take me that long to get ready). I regretted it as it was a beautiful day and the parade, watched on television, looked amazing. I wish Alderman David Wootton a very successful year.

Garden of Remembrance, St Paul’s Cathedral

2011-11-08T12:27:00.003Z

I was honoured to represent The Worshipful Company of Needlemakers at the opening of the Garden of Remembrance Service at St Paul’s on Monday, November 7.

The encampment outside St Paul’s had already had an impact on this event – both with the resignation of Rt Rev Graeme Knowles who was to lead the service and the absence of the marching band which had no place to muster. However the Royal British Legion overcame and everything ran smoothly and movingly.

The National President addressed us in the Crypt of St Paul’s and we were delighted to hear that their annual street collection at stations around the City (for which many present had volunteered) raised substantially more than last year, even in these difficult times, which is a tribute to the work of the Legion. He had visited the “encampment” outside before coming in – many tents but not as many campers. Perhaps this was all too early for them. I am happy to say that nothing intruded on the day.

It was a short but moving service and a fitting start for this week of Remembrance. I planted a cross with a poppy with the other Masters.

Although I was born after the war, World War II was very much part of my growing up. My father volunteered, as did many other members of both John’s and my families. There was no conscription in South Africa and it was touch and go at one point whether the government would support the Allies or the Axis powers. If it were not for the Allies we would certainly not be here: when we visit Wannsee during the Berlin trip you will see that the plan was to rid Europe of all Jews. It is also unlikely that the happy campers outside St Paul’s would be there either – freedom of speech was not available.

I know that these words are familiar to all of us but I think in this week it is worth repeating them.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning 

We will remember them.

The service concluded with the The Kohima Epitaph

When you go home, tell them of us and say,

For your tomorrow, we gave our today.

City of London School Prize day

2011-11-01T18:00:00.001Z

I was trying to think back to my own school days – there were a few prizes and they were generally given out at the last assembly of the year in front of the school, no parents to glow with satisfaction. Yesterday’s prize-giving was an altogether different matter.I was delighted to represent the Needlemakers Company at this annual distribution of prizes which takes place in the Guildhall and the prizes are given out by the Lord Mayor. Unfortunately I couldn’t meet our prize-winner as he was not able to attend. (A number of boys who left the school at the end of the academic year were not there to receive their prizes.)

One would expect this to be a very impressive ceremony held in the Guildhall with the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs and all accompanying officers in full regalia – and it was. But more impressive was the composure of the boys and the record of success that the school has. The boys come from a wide range of backgrounds – I believe that over forty countries of origin are represented – but all striving for excellence. Clearly this is an independent fee-paying school but there are also a number of full scholarships awarded each year to draw in bright boys from less privileged backgrounds.

The Head of School, Nicholas Hulbert, made an excellent speech in praise of the founder, John Carpenter. The Lord Mayor commented that of the many hundred speeches he has heard this year this was one of the best. Oh, to have that confidence and poise at such a young age! I suspect that young man is destined for great things.

I think that our Lord Mayor will have set some kind of new record for the number of speeches he will have made this year – well over 900 and he is as enthusiastic as ever.

The afternoon concluded with a beautiful series of Hebrew love songs sung by the school choir. An unexpected and unusual choice skilfully rendered.

Broderers, Drapers and The King’s Speech

2011-10-28T18:04:00.002+01:00

I was very privileged to be a guest at a magnificent banquet hosted by the Worshipful Company of Broderers at the Drapers Hall last night. It was such a super event that I hardly know where to start.

The Drapers Hall is a magnificent building – if you saw the movie “The King’s Speech” the ‘Accession Council’ meeting took place in the Livery Hall where we had dinner. If you haven’t been to the Hall do look at it on the weblink above – it is beautiful.

There were over thirty-five Masters of other companies there with as many Clerks and other officers of a number of companies, so there were many and varied badges (and medals as well).

This is the 450^th anniversary year of the Broderers’ Company and they have raised a substantial amount of money for their charitable activities from Liverymen. Both our Companies support the Royal School of Needlework and Fine Cell Work and the Master was presented with a lovely cushion from the Fine Cell Work exhibition that I mentioned in an earlier blog.

Apart from the delicious dinner (I am getting into serious eating……) there was very amusing entertainment provided by musicians from the Guildhall School of Music. As part of the Broderers’ fundraising for City Gateway during their 450th year, the Master initiated a ‘Master’s Raffle’ for a sculpture of a running hippopotamus by Mark Coreth. Needless to say the entertainment concluded with a raucous rendition by all of The Hippopotamus Song by Flanders and Swann. It was doubly hilarious hearing this sung in such grand surroundings with everyone in their finery.

The Broderers’ has a tradition that the Master sings a special song (can be found on the website) with all joining in with the rousing choruses. What a nerve-wracking thing to have to do and he did it with style and panache.

Thank you Broderers!

Fine Cell Work – exhibition of work

2011-10-25T16:32:00.001+01:00

This excellent charity is one of the causes supported by the Needlemakers’ Charitable Fund. The background to this, and much of our charitable support, is that we support people who use needles as the manufacture of needles has ceased within the UK.

I make no apology for quoting Fine Cell’s mission directly – I couldn’t express it better. Have a look at their website for further information Fine Cell Work. Fine Cell Work trains prisoners in paid, skilled, creative needlework undertaken in the long hours spent in their cells to foster hope, discipline and self esteem. This helps them to connect to society and to leave prison with the confidence and financial means to stop offending.

Both my mother and grandmother (who trained as a milliner) were fine needlewomen so although I may not be very skilled I can tell good work when I see it. I have several cushions and the quality of the work is superb. The designs range from the traditional to the funky.

More importantly - some of the stories told by the prisoners are very moving. They are paid for their work and the purchaser is encouraged to write a letter of thanks – just first names – and some report crying when they receive these letters. I defy you to read some of the stories with dry eyes.

So it was a delight and a privilege to be invited to represent the Needlemakers at a reception at the Glaziers’ Hall for a pre-Christmas display and sale of work. Fine Cell Work has been commissioned by the Glaziers to produce a triptych for the Hall – the work will be done in up to 100 separate batches in different prisons and the design looks stunning. It was also a chance to see the quilt that was created for Help for Heroes listing all the different regiments serving in Afghanistan.

Fine Cell Work receives support from a number of the Livery Companies and I am proud that ours is one of them.

A twelve hour day – counting money

2011-10-25T16:00:00.002+01:00

I love counting money. In the early days of Breast Cancer Campaign we used to count all the money from street collections in the office and bag it up to take to the bank – there weren’t very many collections or many of us. Now most of the collections are done by others – groups of volunteers, RAGs etc and they count the money and deposit it – except for one day of the year, the day of the mega-raid during October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Part of the deal when I left was that I was invited back for mega-raid day, which was Friday October 21. Raggies from a number of universities across the UK come to London and collect at tube and train stations around the City. Members of staff volunteer to don backpacks and go and empty the buckets (too much like hard work for me) and bring the cash back to the office to be counted, which is the bit I like. Members of staff also give a hand and a contingent from Barclays come in and work in shifts as well and it is hard work but great fun. The Raggies are hugely competitive so the first task is to count the total from each bucket so that by the end of the day (or an early hour of the following morning……) they know who the top money raisers are – the sorting and bagging come later. I finally left just before 10 pm at which point the total was over £31,000.

This morning the front of Number 10 Downing Street was bathed in pink to raise awareness of breast cancer - what a coup. Well done Campaign!

A book launch at Mansion House

2011-10-22T17:25:00.002+01:00

On Monday I attended a book launch at Mansion House. The current Lord Mayor has a very strong interest in the built environment (not exactly surprising with a career spanning engineering, property development and regeneration) and this was the first of two very interesting evenings on this subject.

The book is The City of London, Architectural Tradition and Innovation in the Square Mile. This is a fabulous if somewhat weighty (physically that is) publication. Nicholas Kenyon (MD of the Barbican Centre) is the editor and the photographs are excellent. Despite the physical weight of the book it is a very easy read with lots of interesting snippets of information. It also covers all the major new buildings – although the new Rothschild’s building was still under construction when the book went to print.

I learned something about the Needlemakers’ home church, St James Garlickhithe, a Wren church, that is the tallest of the City churches and has the largest proportion of window area, a response to the buildings then blocking the south side.

This segues very neatly into my second visit to Mansion House on Tuesday for the third in a series of lectures initiated by the Lord Mayor on a range of urban issues, with a particular focus on London and the City. The first was on the development of London from a historical perspective; the second covered the current challenges and opportunities confronting cities, with particular reference to their growth. This final lecture focused on cities of the future what they might look like, how they will operate and what municipal and national leaders can do to ensure they evolve in a sustainable manner.

If the City is to remain a leading financial centre it needs to be vibrant and serve the needs of the businesses working there. Peter Rees, the City Planning Officer, spoke about the City of the 1980s where the only lunch to be found was usually liquid and the City was only alive during the day. I remember too that lunches were either in expensive restaurants (not open at night) a hideous snack in a pub or a sandwich and there was nowhere to buy a pair of tights! Those days are over and the City is alive at night and on weekends and you can shop for anything and eat food from almost anywhere in the world.

This is not only a response to the global market but also some enlightened attitudes to planning which have not constrained developers to keep reproducing versions of old buildings but attracted architects from all over the world with some stunning results. Buy the book to see the results!

Clearly the business community needs to be well served and transport is also a key issue. It was then rather depressing to descend into Bank station to go home. It is a maze that is badly sign-posted and exhausting to use. There is much being done to improve transport in and out of the City with increased buses (so slow with all the road works) Boris bikes (but not for me) and Crossrail – in my lifetime? At the moment the City is heaven above ground but the other place beneath.

The Master’s first engagement!

2011-10-18T13:01:00.003+01:00

My year certainly started off in style. My first engagement was a wonderful dinner hosted by the Worshipful Company of Tinplate Workers alias Wire Workers at the magnificent Fishmongers Hall on the banks of the Thames with the entrance on London Bridge. You don’t get much more historic than that.

I love this Hall (it is where we had our installation dinner last year) especially because it is an opportunity to see the wonderfully romantic portrait of the Queen painted by Pietro Annigoni. I was a child when the portrait was painted and was struck by the fairytale quality of it. It captured a moment in time in the early years of her reign and although it portrayed Her Majesty in a romantic style, the expression on her face is serious and thoughtful and certainly an indication of her commitment to her role. It isn’t lent out to exhibitions so this was a rare opportunity to look at it.

I much enjoyed meeting the Master, Ian Chamberlain, and the Wardens and other guests. A very warm and friendly welcome. It was an excellent dinner with entertainment provided by the Tinplate Workers’ Piano Scholar at the Guildhall School of Music – who just happened to come from my old home town, Johannesburg.

The Company was founded within a few years of the Needlemakers and is 67 in the order of precedence. As we are 65 we usually bump into each other when all the Masters process (we line up in order of precedence). Of course, without wire we wouldn’t be able to make needles.

All the livery companies have websites as do the halls so it is worth looking at them for further information and you can certainly find reproductions of the portrait on line.

PS I won’t continue to refer to myself in the third person as in the headline but I quite enjoyed writing that!

A new chapter....

2011-10-15T14:08:00.003+01:00

I feel rather pretentious putting up such a grand photo of myself on my profile but if the gown fits - well actually it is too long - but I am very proud to wear it.

I was admitted to the Needlemakers in 1987 - one of a very small number of women at that time. I remember my introduction to the Court (the managing committee) where it seemed that each member wanted to impress me with the strength of his handshake. This would have been fine if I had not been wearing a rather bulky ring so I was in some pain by the end. It was a mixture of a fairly intimidating and yet friendly meeting and as I now invest our new liverymen I have an understanding of how they must be feeling.

Thursday October 6, 2011 was a pretty historic day for me and something I shall remember and treasure and also for the Worshipful Company of Needlemakers as I was installed as the first woman to be Master since the company received its Charter from Oliver Cromwell in 1656. I believe that I may also be the first immigrant and the first person to have come from the Third Sector. Charity is at the heart of the livery companies today and all our past Masters have had a heavy involvement in a wide range of charities but we don't think anyone has been employed in the sector before.

I am of course deeply honoured and also chuffed to bits. The Needlemakers is known for being a very friendly and hospitable company and I have received nothing but friendship and warmth in the years I have been a liveryman.

For those not familiar with the Livery Companies of the City of London - they date back to the twelfth century and were trade/craft guilds which regulated activities within the City - traditionally the Square Mile - which subsequently developed into the financial district. There are over 100 companies today including some very new ones such as the World Traders and the Marketors with around 40,000 people belonging to them. Even though some of the old trades have ceased to exist the companies carry on and provide tens of millions of pounds worth of support to a wide range of charitable causes.

They have a language of their own - I no longer swear to be a good and true "brother" but the head honcho is still called the Master, not the Mistress. The Mistress is the woman married to the Master. So I put my feminist sentiments aside and embrace tradition. Number One Husband is known as my Consort (and had a super time at a lunch for Mistresses and Consorts at the Tallow Chandlers Hall where he was one of only a handful of men surrounded by delightful women - how tough is that?)

It is quite awe-inspiring and humbling to realise that you are part of something which goes back centuries. I was installed after a wonderful dinner at the beautiful Vintners Hall on October 6. The Clerk reads the Charge when I agree to do a good and honest job and then the robe goes on with the chain and I move and sit in the central chair. I was fairly relaxed until then - after all I have given many speeches and been seated at the top table of various events - but when I sat down and looked at all those faces looking at me and realised the historical chain of Masters leading up to this - I felt somewhat daunted.

Through this blog I will attempt to chronicle my year for members of the Livery but also for friends and those who are unfamiliar with the traditions and the work of the Company. Please come along for the ride.

Keep Aaron Cutting

2011-08-11T23:23:00.001+01:00

Amidst all the vileness of the events of the last few days are some positive stories and the launch of “Keep Aaron Cutting” is one of these. You can find the details on http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/53039/appeal-keep-tottenham-barber-aaron-biber-cutting-after-riot-damage.
In brief an 89 year old barber who has run his barber shop in Tottenham over several decades turned up on Sunday to find it had been looted – even the kettle had been stolen. Some interns at a London advertising agency, BBH, wanted to show that both social media and young people can be a force for good and set up a campaign to raise money to refurbish the shop. The excess money will go to the community.
This story touched me and reminded me of how a barber played a very important role in my father’s life. My paternal grandfather died while my father was at university in South Africa studying medicine. The family had no money but all the six children were very musical and well taught. He took his classical talents and set up a jazz band and played in night clubs at night and studied during the day and put himself through medical school in this way – this by the way was during the 1930s.
Every two weeks (until he died) he would go to the barber for a haircut. The barber’s name was Nissel Burlin. He had a barber shop in the centre of Johannesburg and had come to South Africa as an immigrant. His wife had a shop next door called Bridal Fabrics and the material for my wedding dress came from there. The family went on to success in the fabric business running a large wholesale company but Nissel still cut hair in his barber shop.
When my father had to go to Edinburgh to qualify as a surgeon – this wasn’t possible in South Africa then. The journey both ways was by ship and he was going to be away several months. This was before the days of international phone calls or even airmail! He gave Nissel power of attorney to look after his affairs and in case anything should happen, because he trusted him, he was familiar with business which my grandmother wasn’t. He had saved a bit of money and was persuaded to play the stock market. Without really understanding the consequences he acted on a tip that a certain share was certain to fall in price and sold them short. (Short selling is the selling of a stock or share that the seller doesn't own. The broker lends it to you from their own inventory – within a time period you have to cover the shares, ie buy them in reality, and if the price drops you can buy them back at a lower price and make a profit on the difference.)
In this case the price did not drop but rose and the shares had to be bought at a higher price and the difference paid to the broker. My father did not have the money in his account – any spare cash he had went with him to Edinburgh to pay for his living expenses.
Nissel covered the shortfall and only told my father when he returned some months later. My father was horrified and Nissel told him not to worry- “Doctor I think you are a good investment”. Of course the money was repaid in full and they remained firm friends until my father’s death in 1968. I am forever grateful to Nissel’s son Percy who has looked after my father’s grave in Johannesburg in our absence.
So Aaron – it is payback time and my donation to the campaign to keep you cutting is in memory of Nissel and my father.

Flying free or freefall?

2011-07-21T13:07:00.004+01:00

It is almost a month since I separated from the "mother ship". I haven't really experienced what it is like not to work full time as I departed for a couple of glorious weeks in Los Angeles staying with my sister and family two days after leaving Breast Cancer Campaign. Los Angeles is quite a surreal environment coming from rainy London (the sun always shines in Southern California....) and the only hint that life had changed forever was that there were so few emails and I risked leaving my phone behind a couple of times.

Back home I am now coming to grips with life without IT support! Over the past two days I have managed to link my computer to my printer wirelessly and discover that my printer is the wrong sort to link wirelessly to the ipad. I have worked out how to synchronise my contacts and calendar to the ipad and iphone - losing the appointments for the rest of the month when I tried to dedupe things that were appearing twice before realising that all I had to do was hide one of the calendars. How stupid does one feel phoning people saying, I know I have an appointment for next week and was it Monday at 10?

The week started with lectures at the Mansion House exploring aspects of the modern City and focusing on how urban design and open spaces contribute to the effectiveness of the City as a modern workplace. Transport was not mentioned - London would be the most livable city if it were not for its inadequacy. Buses take too long and the underground is a nightmare - a blot on the landscape.

Tuesday was a very jolly day on the Thames following the "swan upping" with the Needlemakers. As we were in an antique barge words like "jolly" spring to mind. For the uninitiated - this is a tradition where the cygnets on the Thames are marked and claimed for the Queen and for the Worshipful Company of Dyers and the Vintners. There were about fifty of us and we had a lovely afternoon with lunch and wine starting off at Maidenhead. It is a long time since I have been on that part of the river and it is so beautiful. We were subject to a couple of showers but, hey, we're British, this doesn't phase us.

Next week I am attending a tasting of 200 of the top award-winning spirits and liqueurs courtesy of the Worshipful Company of Distillers - I can see this is going to be a tough year in the City!

PS If you want to know how long it takes to go from hero to zero - 24 hours! I emailed a couple of (former) colleagues the day after leaving Campaign to find that my emails went straight into the spam filter. That's putting me in my place!

Research result for Health Bill campaign

2011-06-15T13:04:00.001+01:00

If you have been following Breast Cancer Campaign on Facebook or Twitter you will see that we have been campaigning for the Government to include a specific duty on the Secretary of State for Health and the new clinical commissioning groups to promote research. The changes that the Government is proposing to make to the Health Bill were announced yesterday and this is included.

We are obviously delighted that the Government has agreed to this – and thanks to all our staff and supporters for contacting their MPs and spreading the word to family and friends. As you can see it made a real difference.

The specific research mentions in the document published by the Government are a new duty for the Secretary of State to promote research; for clinical commissioning groups to promote research and innovation and the use of research evidence, in line with the current duty on the NHS Commissioning Board. They have pledged to ensure that a culture of research and innovation is embedded in the arrangements for both the Board and Public Health England. Finally, to make sure that clinical commissioning groups and the NHS Commissioning Board ensure that treatment costs for patients who are taking part in research funded by Government and Research Charity partner organisations are funded through normal arrangements for commissioning patient care, as set out in existing guidance.

Of course, colleagues here will continue to follow progress with the Bill closely to see how these pledges translate into amendments and to see what other issues relating to research we can promote, now we have so many MPs committed to being research champions.

I would say watch this space – but rather become a fan on Campaign’s Facebook page or follow us on Twitter, and watch THAT space.

The best brains in breast cancer research

2011-06-07T15:39:00.003+01:00

I was going to call this blog “This IS the Big Society in action” but was worried that you might not read beyond the headline. Please continue – it is worth it.

One of the things I will miss very much is observing the meetings of our Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). It is an opportunity to learn about what is new and exciting in research and it is that stimulation that I will miss.

The meeting of the SAB is a gathering of some of the best brains in breast cancer research to advise the trustee board on how to allocate the funding so that only the best research is supported.

What isn’t generally recognised is that all of this is done on a voluntary basis – it isn’t part of the day job. I had the opportunity to talk to the Health Minister, Paul Burstow, about it earlier this year and he was surprised to learn the extent of the voluntary work that scientists do. This is not just for Breast Cancer Campaign – any charity that is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities will have an independent peer review process and reviewers are not paid.

In our case each grant application is reviewed by between two and six experts in the field not only from the UK but also abroad. One review can take anything up to two hours. Members of our Scientific Advisory Board are each allocated several grants to review and spend the same amount of time per grant. They then travel to London for one to two days twice a year and present the grants to the full board who then discuss them. At the end of the meeting the final scores are added up and the decision made.

However excellent the services of the Travelodge where they stay are – it isn’t five-star luxury. A pasta or pizza in a local restaurant is hardly going to land us in trouble with the new bribery laws. So why do they give up all this spare time to do this? A passion for science and a determination to improve the lives of women with breast cancer!

I don’t see this reflected in statistics on volunteering – but that is what it is and we couldn’t do our work without it.

Why a blog?

2011-05-05T15:41:00.002+01:00

I started this blog exactly two years ago and this was the title of my first post. One of the motivations was being able to respond directly to misleading information about breast cancer in the media and, in particular, to talk about what Breast Cancer Campaign was doing.

I have realised over the past year that when so much is happening (politically, economically and in the research field) it becomes more difficult to decide what to write about – so one doesn’t write anything.

This is not the only way we can get our messages out - the big change for Campaign over the past two years is the development of our Facebook page and Twitter profile. We are able to get messages out to our supporters and engage with them directly – all 280,000 of them on Facebook and 3,500 on Twitter.

The really big news for me and important news for Campaign is that from 1 July, when I retire from the charity, there will be a new Chief Executive at the helm – Delyth Morgan. I didn’t have anything to do with the very thorough recruitment process but it was a difficult time for colleagues not knowing what the outcome would be.

The news has been welcomed very positively both from colleagues and the wider community. Personally I could not be more delighted – I am very passionate about the work we do and I know that Delyth shares that passion and will take the organisation to new heights. I have known her from when she was CE of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, when we used to meet regularly and see how we could change the breast cancer world, and subsequently when she was appointed Baroness Morgan of Drefelin and was a minister in the Labour government and a patron of Campaign’s. Read more about Delyth.

Whither this blog? It will be unlinked from Campaign’s website but I haven’t quite decided what direction to take. As you will know from earlier blogs, starting in October 2011 I will be heavily involved with the activities of The Worshipful Company of Needlemakers. I thought it might be interesting to fellow Needlemakers to read about it and for those not involved with Livery Companies to find out about some of the activities of the City of London, which do not focus on finance but rather its historic tradition as a place of trade and craft.

Breast Compression!!*

2011-03-29T17:10:00.002+01:00

This morning I had my three-yearly mammogram as part of the national breast screening programme (OK this may be too much information but hang in there). We are very good at complaining and campaigning when things don’t work but the moment they are working we take them for granted.

The breast screening programme started in 1988 and I have been every three years apart from when there were issues in my area and it was suspended for some months. I have seen it change from taking only one x-ray each side to taking two x-rays each side from two different angles and today the machines were digital so that the radiographer can check the X-ray immediately to see if the quality was OK. It was quick and efficient and, although this is not the most comfortable procedure, it wasn’t that bad.

Of course it is disappointing that about 20 per cent of screening units do not yet have digital mammography and that needs to be urgently addressed. The age range for screening has been extended to 70 (rising to 73 by 2016) but after that it is down to you to ask for it. That does concern me as it is so easy to forget when the last time was and one’s memory doesn’t improve with age. Remember there are two major risk factors – gender and age. The older you are the greater the risk.

I am now part of three screening programmes – the national breast and bowel cancer programmes and also taking part in a trial for ovarian cancer screening. None of this protects you from those cancers (seriously there are some people who think it does) and none of it replaces being aware of your own body and any unusual changes.

*this is what happens when they take the x-ray – you get the picture.....

Is the career structure for scientific research in universities broken?

2011-03-17T14:57:00.001Z

Thanks to MRC Policy Watch (Medical Research Council) for drawing a Nature opinion piece to our attention. According to the article the career structure for scientific research in universities is broken. It says the science job market has been tight for decades and this has been compounded by the global recession and accompanying austerity measures. It suggests “professionalising” the postdoctoral role; turning it into a career rather than a scientific stepping stone.

The post-doctoral role is something that seems unique to scientific research in the UK. In any other career structure, once you have left university you are launched onto the job market where if you are successful in finding a job it is, at least theoretically, permanent. If you perform well and your employer is financially successful, you will continue to be employed. If not, your services will be dispensed with in the first instance or you will be made redundant in the second. What happens to you then depends on your abilities and the vagaries of the job market.

Not so in scientific research: once you have your PhD (and another story in finding funding for that) you try and find a team or department that has funding to give you your first post. This may well be with what is called soft funding – ie from a charity such as ours. That will last for three years, and during your third year you have to think about applying for the next round of funding. After a few of these, if you are successful you will be leading your own team and employed by the university and thus have tenure where your job is secure. I am not sure that the concept of tenure exists anywhere else.

This process also discriminates against women who have families. If you take a career break to have a family and then get back on the post-doc soft money road show, review boards may turn you down as you will be older than your contemporaries and they may question why you are not leading your own team by now. I am happy to say that in observing our own Scientific Advisory Board that is not the case, but it does happen.

Our scientific fellowship awards are designed to help the talented investigator make that transition from post-doc award to tenure and we hope that by the time they finish their five year fellowship they are in a position to negotiate tenure. But we can only fund one or two of these a year.

In other European countries the situation is somewhat different and there are defined career structures, but they do not have the level of charity funded research that is found in the UK. We know that the UK punches well above its weight in the global academic research community but at what cost?

I wonder how many talented researchers fall by the wayside because of this system. I think that the author of the piece, Jennifer Rohn, makes a case very eloquently but don’t expect the system to change any time soon.

Let them eat cake!

2011-03-14T10:14:00.004Z

Very exciting news as Breast Cancer Campaign was placed at number 40 on The Sunday Times 100 Best Places to Work in the Public and Charity Sectors list 2011, published yesterday. The charity achieved the fourth highest score (92.9%) for making a positive difference to the world. If you saw the photo you will think that eating cake is an important part of what we do here - and you wouldn’t be far wrong.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and every Friday different teams in the office contribute to the bake-off which is judged at the end of the month. Sadly my baking skills have never come close to matching those of incredibly talented colleagues. Last year the bake-off was won by the Communications team, and the Research team the year before. The competition is intense – but wanting to be the best is the DNA that runs through this organisation.

We want to support the best research and our scientists and our supporters share the credit for achieving the fourth highest score in making a positive difference to the world.

We have also been recognised in the Best Companies Accreditation list for 2011, achieving One Star Status.

We are delighted to have achieved places for the second year running thanks to the hard work of our staff, volunteers, fundraisers and trustees.

I am only sorry that because of The Times pay-wall I can give you a link to the page but you will have to subscribe to see it: http://features.thesundaytimes.co.uk/best100companies/

What 40,000 people are doing this week

2011-02-18T16:21:00.000Z

New Year resolutions are a distant memory for most of us (OK maybe just me) but for about 40,000 people, training for the Virgin London Marathon (Sunday 17 April) is in full gallop. As someone for whom walking 26 miles in one day was a real challenge a couple of years ago, the thought of running that distance is unthinkable so I am in total admiration of anyone who does it.

Every year we have many volunteers and some staff who take on this challenge and we provide support in a number of ways, and those of us who don’t, won’t or can’t run go along on the day to cheer them along. If you have a place and want to run for us, join the Breast Cancer Campaign All Stars team.

Two of my frustrations in life are that I cannot hold a tune and cannot draw anything – not even well enough to entertain very small grandchildren. It hasn’t stopped me loving music and painting. I haven’t queued for hours for many things but until the art galleries introduced booking online for art exhibitions, queuing to get into an exhibition was one of them. We even travelled to The Netherlands for a weekend in order to see the Vermeer exhibition at The Hague a few years ago. The paintings are small and perfect and it was dreadfully crowded but still worth it. Of course, thanks to Tracy Chevalier who wrote the international bestseller Girl with a Pearl Earring, which became an Oscar-nominated film in 2003, that painting is now familiar to a much wider public.

We are very excited that Tracy will join thousands of runners in the Virgin London Marathon to support us this year. She is running in support of several friends who have been diagnosed with breast cancer in recent years. I think what she has said echoes the views of so many who take on these extraordinary challenges. “At times I have felt helpless in the face of what they have gone through. I decided that running the London Marathon for Breast Cancer Campaign was one concrete way that I could help to raise money and awareness. I’ve never run a marathon before so it will be a big challenge but one that I’m ready for, if it helps others affected by breast cancer.”

I think I will now go back and reread the book and wait for her next one – a novel about an English Quaker woman who helps runaway slaves escape from Ohio to Canada in the 1840s.

Breast cancer is a disease not a punishment

2011-02-04T11:00:00.001Z

There has been blanket coverage of the publication of new statistics on breast cancer in the UK. There are statistics, interpretation of statistics and news stories and sometimes the latter wins out over the former.

I am always nervous of certainty without evidence. They were certain that the earth was flat, that smoking was harmless and that a radical mastectomy was the only way to treat breast cancer. None of those is true and we have the evidence to prove it.

The facts in this case are that there are more cases of breast cancer being diagnosed now than before – around 48,000; age is still the biggest risk factor for breast cancer – 81 per cent of women diagnosed were 50 and older and more women are surviving longer after treatment.

Increase in the numbers diagnosed is part of a trend and we have some ideas why this might be happening: there has been a partial extension of the screening programme from 50 to 47 and from 70 to 73; the number of women going for screening is going up and we are living longer.

Apart from a genetic predisposition to breast cancer which is between 5 – 10 per cent of all cases there is no identified cause. I use the word cause advisedly because a risk factor is not a cause. There are various risk factors which probably contribute to this and these have been well aired in the media – women are having fewer children and having them later and not all are breastfeeding; increasing levels of obesity and less physical activity and links with regular consumption of alcohol be it binge drinking or a couple of glasses of wine every night.

These are risk factors and while turning into some sort of breeding machine and breast-feeding until pregnant again is not an option - reducing alcohol consumption, increasing exercise and controlling your weight are lifestyle changes you can make (and your overall health will be much better!). None of these in themselves will cause breast cancer but neither are you “protected” if you are teetotal, run marathons and are as slim as a reed.

There are many reasons why survival is improving – screening leading to earlier diagnosis and better treatments (thanks to research done in the past – so keep supporting research!).

I am all in favour of taking responsibility for one’s own actions, one’s own health and one’s own life. But in the end this is a disease not a punishment and we need to understand better why breast cancer happens in the first place (and therefore whether we could prevent it), why it spreads to other parts of the body and why some people respond well to treatment and others don’t. Of course I would say this but research has led to longer survival and less damaging treatments but the need is no less pressing.

The Health and Social Care Bill

2011-01-21T10:59:00.000Z

This much talked about Bill was published on 19 January. I have not yet braved the 367 pages of the Bill – I might just wait until the explanatory notes are published and then brave the reading. It is a lot to get through and, as always, the devil will be in the detail.

At first glance the word research does crop up from time to time and I am slightly encouraged to see that The National Health Service Commissioning Board has as two of its remits a “duty” to promote innovation and research. I will read further.

I feel a bit like I did about War and Peace (see earlier blog). But now that I have got into the swing of the story I am eagerly awaiting my tube journeys each day so that I can move onto the next chapter.

Perhaps this will be just the same......

Seriously though – we will read, analyse and inwardly digest and you may even see comments here.

If you can’t contain your excitement, you can see it here Health and Social Care Bill.

My electric car is no more....

2011-01-14T16:49:00.000Z

It is with some sadness that I report the demise of my little electric car. It would have been its fifth birthday this month. Much as I enjoyed using it and could feel smugly “green”, the practicalities eventually ground me down including the requirement for a new battery pack.

Certainly if you wish to drive into central London the economic benefits are very clear – no congestion charge and free parking in Westminster. There is also no road tax and it is in a low insurance group and costs very little to charge. But as I am retiring in the Summer I could not justify the expense.

There are negative consequences about being at the leading edge of technology. Although I believe that the newer models are improved (and hugely more expensive), the range is claimed to be up to 40 miles but it rarely is and certainly is half that during the cold weather and if your journey involves hills. The battery pack is only guaranteed for one year and is hugely expensive to replace. One can make an economic case for doing all that if you are taking advantage of everything I mentioned above but it is no longer justified. I would have had four batteries in five years – one of which was replaced free of charge because the first was faulty – although it took some months to find that out. Additionally, you have only one place to have the car serviced – so no shopping around if you are not pleased.

I am pessimistic about the medium term future of electric cars. There are certainly a number in the pipeline but they are very expensive so very much a rich(er) person’s whim.

So it is back to the Underground which has thankfully been very efficient since the beginning of the year. I am also reading War and Peace. Well not exactly reading – I have never managed to advance beyond a few chapters. I have downloaded an audio version which is exceptionally well read and I am enthralled.

Some personal news to start 2011

2011-01-06T09:47:00.002Z

It has been a while since I wrote anything – there has almost been too much happening and my brain couldn’t deal with prioritisation and then there were all those holidays....

I start 2011 with some personal news: you may know that I am involved with one of the Livery Companies of the City of London – the Worshipful Company of Needlemakers. All being well I hope to be Master next year. This is hardly a full time job but past Masters have made it clear that combining the role with full-time, full-on work is pretty tough and you end up having to turn down invitations you would have liked to accept.

I will be the first woman to hold this position in the Company’s 355 year history so it will be a very exciting time. It will also be a very busy year with many social and some ceremonial engagements. I have decided that it is not possible to take on this position and to work full time at the same time - to do so would be unfair to both organisations and to my family! I will be retiring from Breast Cancer Campaign during the summer of 2011.

I am very proud that with the support of my colleagues, the scientists we fund, and all the supporters and volunteers who all make up Breast Cancer Campaign, we have built a great organisation which is funding world class innovative research. We have an experienced and dedicated staff, a committed trustee board, a prestigious Scientific Advisory Board and exciting developments in the coming year.

The Trustee Board has started the process for the recruitment of a new Chief Executive and the post will be advertised at the end of this week.

Campaign will have, as always, my full commitment and energies until my successor is on board. I continue to be passionate about what we do and why we do it and look forward to seeing the charity not only flourish in a new chapter of its life but our research make a positive impact on the lives of those affected by breast cancer.

One of the advantages of having been here as long as I have is that I can recall and reflect on the progress that has been made in scientific research and the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
You may see a bit more about the Needlemakers over the coming months. If the Livery Companies are a mystery to you – have a look at the website: The Needlemakers Company.

And where were you when we were all battling the weather?

2010-12-23T16:28:00.003Z

Firstly I was here for the chaos of the tube strikes.

Secondly I was here for the first snow chaos.

OK – so I was in Cape Town for two weeks until Tuesday. We were watching the UK news and I really, really felt everyone’s pain but somehow no one believed me.

As with many, our flight home on Sunday night was cancelled. However, the rest of our experience was very different. I received a text from BA at about 10pm on Saturday night to say the flight was cancelled. They, very unhelpfully, then gave a number to call which only operated during office hours Monday to Friday and the website was hardly responding. However I managed to find a local BA employee at Cape Town airport who very wisely advised me to rebook on the Monday night flight then and there which we did. We then had a trouble free journey home unlike thousands who were stranded here. Our friends in Cape Town (and everyone here) thought we were mad to come back but, as glorious as Cape Town is and it is very glorious, home is home.

While I was enjoying the sunshine, everyone at Campaign was working flat out. A lot of work was being done analysing the results of October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month (and for some, recovering from working six weekends on the trot!).

A letter organised by Campaign’s Policy team was published in The Times on 16 December; (you have to pay to access the website so I can’t give you their link) but you can read it here on our website. It was signed by 122 leading cancer scientists and clinicians, and demanded that the Government renew its commitment to the Charity Research Support Fund. (The CRSF is the mechanism via which the Government funds the indirect costs of charity research, such as university libraries, allowing charities such as Campaign to fund only the direct costs of research.)

On December 20 the Business Secretary issued the annual grant letter which sets out Government funding for universities for the next four years. This is the first step in deciding the funding for the CRSF. We are therefore really pleased that for the first time ever in this annual process, the Business Secretary has given a clear Government endorsement for protecting charity funded research. The letter said that the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) should plan for “protecting funding leveraged from external sources such as the charitable and business sectors.”

The campaigning that we and others have done on this issue has helped to produce this result.

This is a satisfying way to end the year – lots more to do.

Charity begins at home

2010-12-01T15:39:00.001Z

And ‘home’ for the working day is Breast Cancer Campaign. Our staff do things personally to support our charity on top of the day jobs, whether it is raising money through our own wear it pink activity, running marathons or other races or doing sponsored walks – we all do our bit.

I am also always impressed by a willingness to help other charities – and this week was an example. A friend has “adopted” two orphanages in Vilnius in Lithuania and asks for gifts of toys and warm clothes and donations. A friendly truck driver takes the donated goods over just before Christmas and she and her husband also go over and buy lots of fresh fruit and other treats (yes fresh fruit is a treat) for the children and ensure that everyone has a new toy and a big hug.

Colleagues here have rallied round with gifts of toys and warm children’s clothes. We also have quite a number of samples that we are sent and which we can’t use. We have filled five black bin liners which will soon be on their way to Vilnius. Really easy to do but we feel good about it.

On the same theme I was impressed with an initiative in London last week – Mitzvah Day. Mitzvah is Hebrew for a good deed. As I went into my local supermarket I was handed a leaflet and asked to add a few items to my trolley from the list and give them to the collector on the way out. This was to support a local shelter for the homeless. It was practical with things like soap and cleaning materials, shampoo, nappies and tissues, non-perishable foods and perhaps some nice biscuits as a treat. It was no effort and the cost was small but I felt good again – practical and effective and of course very dependent on all the volunteers who made it happen.

Getting on with the day job

2010-11-29T15:38:00.005Z

Post October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a sort of writer’s block sets in. Not that the activity is any less – just different and too much to write about so I do nothing! We have been beset by every lurgy doing the rounds – I think that the adrenalin keeps everyone going during October and the moment you relax the bugs strike. This is not backed by any evidence so I should wash my mouth out with soap.

I am trying to generate some Christmas spirit but finding it difficult. What with strikes, student protests, WikiLeaks and England’s miserable performance on the rugby field, only partly offset by their better performance at the Gabba – I feel I want to stop the world and get off for a while. I don’t want to trivialise the serious stuff in there but one does feel beleaguered at times.

Even the nicest part of last week had a cloud over it. I have written before about my involvement with the Worshipful Company of Needlemakers of which I now am Senior Warden. There are a number of very enjoyable events during the year and last Wednesday was one of them – the Festival of St Cecilia at Westminster Abbey. St Cecilia is the Patron Saint of Music and the Worshipful Company of Musicians sponsors this annual service to raise money for their benevolent funds. It rotates between St Pauls, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral.

It is a beautiful occasion – the Musicians and the Masters and Wardens of the various Livery Companies process down the aisle (soon to be walked by Kate Middleton!) and then listen to wonderful music and some inspiring thoughts. What’s not to like?

I was quite anxious about being caught up in the student protest – I don’t do very well in crowds. So we arrived very early and there were no students to be seen (hardly a surprise – they don’t usually do early mornings). When we left we walked towards Victoria Station to lunch and although there were police cars there were still no students. After lunch we went to Pimlico tube station rather than coming back towards Trafalgar Square to avoid the demonstration.

So my information on the demonstration came from the news - but the most disturbing report was on LBC that evening where a woman phoned in (around 6.30) to say that she had driven into London and had no choice but to go along the Embankment and young men had kicked her car, jumped on the bonnet and threatened her through the window. She sounded shaken, as a woman alone in a car I can understand why. Were they students? Who knows and if not how do the organisers ensure that they are not a catalyst for general thuggery.

And then there is another Tube strike today – we are working around it – some taking a day’s leave, some working from home and most have made it in. How depressing that we take this all in our stride and work around it.

If you were in central London on Friday....

2010-10-25T17:05:00.004+01:00

You may well have seen one or more of the 200 Raggies who were collecting for Breast Cancer Campaign at tube and train stations. The Campaign Megaraid is one of the highlights of Breast Cancer Awareness month and Raggies come from far and wide to take part. It is an interesting logistics operation and our conference room becomes the control room for the day with a spreadsheet projected onto the wall with running totals for each collector.

Most of us also down tools and help out – the more robust ones hiking around with backpacks to unload the buckets and bring them back. The control room takes calls from the Raggies when their buckets become too heavy to hold and someone is despatched to go and empty the bucket and bring the load back to base.

I love counting the money and spend most of Friday and some of Monday operating one of the coin machines counting and bagging the money. I can understand that we end up with a bucket full of foreign coins but what really puzzles me is the coins which are no longer legal tender. One bucket I counted had nine old ten pence pieces – they haven’t been legal tender for some time – is someone walking around with these in their pocket so that they can dump them in a collecting tin one day? There were also defunct foreign coins – German marks and French francs. Why are these in your pocket?

But there were notes as well and even a £50 note which was really exciting: it is such a great day and the Raggies and staff work so hard with little sleep on Thursday and Friday nights. I am afraid I wimped out at about 8.30 on Friday night. We count until all the money is counted because they want to know exactly how much has been raised by each collector, each university and in total – over £56,000 this year – a record.

For the uninitiated, universities have their “Raising and Giving” committees and students who take part are Raggies!

Thanks to all the Raggies and other volunteers, especially the team from Barclays (they normally never see real money.......) and also Pret a Manger for donating sandwiches on Thursday night to feed everyone!

If it’s October it must be.....

2010-10-20T15:51:00.001+01:00

Let’s knock Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As regularly as the month of pink comes around so does the criticism. Less sexy cancers, a rather sickly pink. As my colleagues are sick of hearing me say “if I had a money tree then we wouldn’t need to raise money”. Until that happens we will do whatever it takes within what is acceptable to raise the money. The research won’t happen otherwise – the government isn’t going to fund it.

We absolutely understand that, for some who are going through treatment or have just been diagnosed or lost someone, all this pink stuff can be hard to deal with. On the other hand there are many women who have said to me that it is an opportunity to do something challenging (check out 500 women in muddy Hyde Park doing Pink Aerobics – many of whom have had breast cancer) or something silly to forget the daily grind of chemotherapy with the side-effects it brings; or to remember Mum or sister or colleague and all the time know that the end result is research which might change that picture in the future.

I have never claimed that the cause I espouse is better than any other – each to his own. The huge popularity of BCAM is that so many have been touched by this disease – whether personally or family, friend or colleague and they all appreciate that the money raised is vital.

We took inspiration from the AIDS campaigners of the eighties. All those women who wouldn’t talk about breasts let alone cancer suddenly realised that if people, and very famous people, could talk about contracting AIDS and therefore coming out about their sexuality or intravenous drug use maybe talking about breast cancer wasn’t such a big deal.

I had lots of opportunities in the early 90s to complain about the very high profile that AIDS had where the incidence in this country was very low compared to breast cancer – I didn’t – just watched and learned.

...as I said to the Prime Minister yesterday....

2010-10-15T12:25:00.003+01:00

A very exciting and very early visit to Downing Street Thursday morning. If you didn’t already know it October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the Prime Minister very kindly invited us to Number 10 Downing Street to have a photograph taken. One of our Board members came along too and we pinned our pink jigsaw pin on the Prime Minister’s lapel and he put some money in our collecting tin. (Real folding money which he took out of his wallet – the reporter outside asked if it was just a piece of paper or real money so I knew you would be interested!)

I believe in the “photo opportunity” trade this is known as a grip and grin! He gripped we grinned and I managed to deliver all our key messages in five minutes.

Then we were on our way – to be followed later in the morning by the Governator (Arnold Schwarzenegger to the uninitiated) who apparently was accompanied by nine minders. Perhaps being Prime Minister isn’t such fun.....

We were also shown the Cabinet Room which seems surprisingly small – no blood on the carpet which you might think would be the case after the last few years in Downing Street - and the pencils needed sharpening.

Now back to work....

Worse than waiting for exam results

2010-10-08T14:37:00.002+01:00

We are all braced for the announcement of the Comprehensive Spending Review at the end of the month but we are still in full consultation mode - most of it is now over but the shouting is still going on. More about that later.

We are now in the midst of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Last Sunday hundreds of women took part in Pink Aerobics in Hyde Park in torrential rain – they are really amazing – pink and mud is the theme for the month!

We are gearing up for our (16th) Pink Ribbon Ball on Saturday night and then it is all hands to the pump for the London mega-raid on Friday 22 October. Our amazing raggies collect all around central London and most of our staff down tools and help on the day. I pull rank and insist on operating one of the coin counting machines (a coveted job) - not that I don’t like receiving big cheques or folding money – but there is something so satisfying hearing all those coins rattle down the chute of the machine. And then there is wear it pink – more about that later....

The week started at the Conservative Party Conference – where there was a subdued (because of the spending cuts looming) buzz. We wait for the result of the Comprehensive Spending Review on October 20 – worse than waiting for exam results. I know I should have blogged like mad about everything that has been happening on the political front but too much and too tired. Please read Simon Denegri’s blog – I did think that all I needed to do was just post up a link to him every morning if you want to know what is happening in the medical research arena – what affects one affects all.

There is no more heavyweight charity in medical research than the Wellcome Trust. They have a very clear voice in the sector. Read the article in the Guardian this morning We won't fill the gaps say firms and charities where Mark Walport, Director of Wellcome, pointed out the risks the government runs if it withdraws funding from university research. Not only will charities be less effective but industry will as well. Breast Cancer Campaign is committed to funding research in the UK – international companies can go anywhere and where the money goes the talent and the employment follows. Be afraid, be very afraid!

And finally...... The Times (which you can’t read online without paying for it) printed a list of the winners of the election for Shadow Cabinet places. You know that women’s liberation has a long way to go when you read about the person who received the most votes –

"Yvette Cooper (232 votes) wife of Ed Balls. One of Party's most popular figures".

Strangely the entry for Ed Balls (who only came third) did NOT say "husband of.....".

Science is vital

2010-09-29T14:01:00.004+01:00

I have just signed the ‘Science is Vital’ petition established by the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) which grew out of ‘Save British Science’ in the 1980s.

As the Campaign says on its website, “the UK has a proud history of excellence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We are world-leaders in many fields of research, producing over 10% of global scientific output with only 1% of the global population, and despite spending less on science per capita than most of our competitors.” This is nowhere more apparent than at the annual breast cancer symposium in San Antonio, Texas, every December where British scientists punch way above their weight in terms of not only the numbers presenting but also the quality of the research. We have been fortunate to see a number of scientists we support each year.

Why should you sign this if you are not a scientist? Science investment in the UK is a crucial driver of our economy and overwhelmingly supports world-class research. We know – our research is peer-reviewed internationally. Cutting investment risks putting all this in jeopardy — especially at a time when our competitors, such as the US, China, Germany, and France, are increasing their science funding. If we do the opposite we will lose not only our science base but also our scientists and discourage inward investment which will have a negative impact on the economy – and on all of us.

Do not think for one moment that charities can pick up the slack. We are already, as you will have seen from earlier blogs, at risk of losing the Charity Research Support Fund thereby reducing the amount of research that we will be able to support.

Please follow the link here.

Thank you.

Thoughts for last week

2010-09-20T12:12:00.002+01:00

Our sector has our own trade paper – Third Sector. It runs a column which charts a week in the life of a charity Chief Executive. One tries to sound worthy, hard-working, caring and business-like and possibly even humorous as well. I ticked that box a while ago but I was reminded of it when I thought back about the past week which has been a full one, both professionally and personally.

On the work front, besides planning for a board meeting and October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I have been signing off responses to numerous consultations (see CEO AMRC - Simon Denegri's blog) in between preparing for party conference season. I don’t know quite how our small (but perfectly formed) research and policy team have crammed it all in.

As you would expect our fundraising and communications teams are rushed off their feet and there will be no let up until the end of October and wear it pink. There is so much happening over the next few weeks that we have a Monday morning round-up of everything that is happening just for that week so that we can know what our colleagues are doing and how we can help. This coming Friday afternoon sees me at Hyde Park helping with Debenhams’ staff STEP ON IT - raising money with a walk.

Back to last week: it is a thoughtful time of year if you are Jewish. I grew up in an orthodox Jewish home, although we did not stick to all the letters of the law – especially regarding food! However, my father, besides being a surgeon had studied the Talmud and lived the spirit of his religion. I remember as a child when he explained to me that on the first day of the Jewish New Year the book of judgment was opened and you had till the end of the Day of Atonement (last Saturday night) to atone for your sins and ask for forgiveness because when the book was shut everything that was going to happen was written and you had no chance to change it. No, I don’t really believe that but old habits die hard and there was a lot to think about this week.

So Avram Grant did not attend the West Ham game on Saturday because he, the son of a Holocaust survivor, was respecting the Day of Atonement. I was disappointed to learn that a small percentage of the fans thought he should. There are some things more important than football – and West Ham earned their first points of the season – so there.

Nobby Stiles is selling his memorabilia from the time that England had a football team that could and did win a World Cup. Footballers in the 1960s were paid around £25 a week which was very much in line with other salaries. Clearly money doesn’t buy success.

This also coincided with the visit of the Pope and without entering into any discussion about the very real and valid criticisms of the church – there was something impressive about seeing tens of thousands of people coming together to pray rather than in anger. There were protests and that is good too – we all have a voice, which brings me onto my next thought.

My grandfather was in the Royal Flying Corps in WWI and my father served on a British hospital ship in WWII (the AMRA for history fans). This week saw the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain: then, as now, it is politicians that cause wars, not soldiers. I am only too aware that I would not be living here, safely, with the right to protest, in London today if it were not for them. If you have a spare couple of hours in London – go to the Air Force Museum in Hendon and have a look at those airplanes – how did they do it?

I was also reminded of when Winston Churchill died and was lying in state in Westminster. It was a freezing January night: we came home from work, grabbed something to eat and went to queue for five hours to walk past and pay our respects.

We all know Churchill’s comment on the Battle of Britain - “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few”. Even more poignantly, leading blogger Iain Dale was visiting Commonwealth graves this weekend with his father and mentions the inscription on the grave of Flying Officer D Hopkinson, died aged 22, 17 May 1943 “He died to give us another dawn, for us to live all his tomorrows.”

Science at the top of the media agenda – for all the wrong reasons.

2010-09-10T14:11:00.002+01:00

For once science has been near the top of the media agenda this week and for all the wrong reasons. You can read others far more eloquent than I on the subject of Vince Cable’s speech and subsequent interviews and comments on the subject of cutting back on science spending. We have been campaigning for the retention of the Charity Research Support Fund (how could you not know dear reader) so that we could at least continue to fund research at the level we do now.

Now, not only is that under threat but the Government is threatening to cut back on science spending on research and possibly particularly on cancer – almost saying that because the charities have done so well they can opt out. Yes, this is a simplification but it makes the point.

In his speech he said “I want to lay down a challenge to the science and business communities today. That we come together, work together and plan a future together that makes the most of this country’s competitive advantages in financially difficult circumstances for the benefit of us all.” You would not think what would follow from this an announcement that the science budget would be cut – cut academic research and there is no one left with whom to collaborate.

I think that is a mistake, not because it will put scientists out of work but because we as a country have precious few natural resources to exploit: we are hardly a low cost manufacturer like China or India but what we still seem to have are talent and brains and we punch far above our weight in science and innovation. Unsurprisingly that is also what drives industry and ultimately the economy so that more companies/people pay tax. More taxes....... so obviously the sensible thing to do is to choke this at the source – cut the science budget.

But that wasn’t what sent me into full rant mode. What sent me into full rant mode was Vince Cable’s statement that “There was some estimate on the basis of surveys done recently that something in the order of 45 per cent of the research grants that were going through was to research that was not of excellent standard. So the bar will have to be raised”.

We are just finishing the trustees’ report for our accounts. In it we talk about how, in the past year, the percentage of grants funded against applications regrettably has reduced. This is not because the quality has declined but because the number of applications has increased significantly but the number we can afford to fund has not increased alongside this. A panel of international, external experts has judged the research as excellent as has our very eminent scientific advisory board – and yet the bar has been raised – again – so that some of these excellent pieces of research are not being funded. I am not sure how you can be more or less excellent but that is the territory we are in. Other funding bodies, including the research councils are no different.

Oh joy, oh rapture there is someone smarter and better qualified than me who said it for me – please read Dismisses internationally excellent research.

We know that the government is going to make cuts – make them but don’t pretend it is merely to slash the mediocre.

Is that a t-shirt I see flying past my window...

2010-09-01T14:03:00.002+01:00

Workers in London’s iconic “Gherkin” building were bemused to see a pink cloud shaped like a t-shirt floating past their window this morning. Just a reminder that Breast Cancer Campaign’s flagship event, wear it pink, supported by Vanish, is on October 29th. Just wear something pink and make a donation to research – couldn’t be simpler. Of course if you just wish to wear pink bubbles that is entirely up to you.

You can register for wear it pink either on the website or through our Facebook Page.

Just because you are paranoid...

2010-08-27T11:12:00.003+01:00

...doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. OK – they aren’t out to get me – but my feeling that the government’s commitment to medical research may not be as strong as we would like, or that the UK needs, is resonating elsewhere.

Rather than write about it myself – let me direct you to one of the best blogs in the charity medical research sector – Simon Denegri*. In his recent blog he says “I know that I can be prone to policy hypochondria but, in talking with our members, my instinctive sense that the current White Paper proposals do not account for nor incentivise strongly enough medical research, has hardened.” Read more Sunshine, stem cells and policy hypochondria over the NHS.

Simon mentions the following blog in his text from William Cullerne Brown** on what is being billed as Vince Cable’s first major speech on science on the 8 September. As How to read Vince Cable's big speech on science at Queen Mary's University of London. This goes beyond medical research and into science in general and sounds some warning signals. He states, “I think the central question is still what role spending by government on research and technology plays in the government's economic thinking...... Either the coalition believes the state has an important role in securing Britain's hi-tech future, in which case it should have no difficulty in committing to long-term support for science. Or it doesn't, in which case the only thing it can say is, as Margaret Thatcher did, that the government's job is to cut taxes so that firms can make up their own minds about where to spend their money.”

Certain industries may well do that – and do it elsewhere – the pharmaceutical industry certainly has that option. And without good basic research coming out of the universities – well there are plenty of other options for them and not in this country.

* CEO of the Association of Medical Research Charities
** William Cullerne Brown is Chairman and Founder of Research Fortnight and Research Europe

Self help or self harm – do we know?

2010-08-20T16:10:00.001+01:00

Whether we live a “healthy” lifestyle or not many of us think about it even if we don’t always succeed. Herbal and other complementary therapies have always been around and while there may be a lack of evidence to how effective they are (no I am not going to enter into the evidence-based discussion here) most of them are not harmful.

I am for the healthy lifestyle and I believe that if you eat a balanced diet you shouldn’t need supplements but have to admit to swallowing vitamin C if I think I am getting a cold and sometimes the cold develops and sometimes it doesn’t...

Just as there are interactions between licensed medicines (and your doctor and/or pharmacist should always make a careful note of what you are already taking before prescribing/dispensing something new), there are interactions between the medicines and the complementary therapies or indeed some foods.

In 2004, a colleague and I went to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference and there was a very scary presentation from a group including someone from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre – one of the top cancer hospitals in the USA. What was so alarming is that they said that over 70 per cent of cancer patients receiving medical treatment are also using complementary therapies and some of these were actually counteracting the effect of their cancer treatments. What is really worrying is that the vast majority of these patients did not tell their doctor because they thought they would be laughed at or stopped from taking something which they thought “was doing them good”.

Sloan-Kettering has a database About Herbs, Botanicals & Other Products where you can look up the various products and also see if there are known interactions.

This was brought to my attention this week by an article in the Irish Times by Muiris Houston The mixing of treatments can be lethal. This drew from an article in Cancer World by Anna Wagstaff, Grapefruit juice and St Johns Wort are just the tip of the iceberg (July-August 2010 No 37). We know that many cancer drugs are “toxic” which means that as well as killing the cancer cells they have unpleasant or even quite serious side-effects and the two have to be balanced. What happens if some other substance is either preventing the drug from working – or even causing the drug to stay in the body longer than it should, resulting in an overdose.

When treatments fail patients or when the side-effects are so bad the treatment is stopped – is the impact of possible other therapies that the patient is taking explored? As Anna Wagstaff says, “Drug interactions cannot always be avoided but so long as they are identified, they can at least be managed. The danger lies in interactions that are not being identified and by their very nature it is difficult to know how widely this is happening”.

I am neither for nor against complementary therapies – I am for the evidence - and article like this should provoke an acceptance the evidence is needed and a spirit of cooperation between clinician and patient is essential. Sloan Kettering has made a good start.

Good, even better but not best

2010-08-16T13:41:00.001+01:00

Now that the flurry of activity surrounding the publication in the British Medical Journal about breast cancer mortality statistics has calmed down, we need to look behind the headlines – “UK breast cancer rates fall faster,” “Breast cancer death rates dive,” and “Not so far behind Europe after all”.

It is all about the context. The research is good and the conclusions are thoughtful, but then the newspapers need a headline and a few punchy paragraphs and that is where the context disappears. In a nutshell, of course it is good news that mortality rates are continuing to fall and they have fallen the most in the UK. It isn’t such good news that our mortality wasn’t that great to start with.

The facts are that breast cancers in the UK are diagnosed earlier and treated more effectively than they were two decades ago and mortality has fallen.

What complicates things is that the quality of data relating to cause of death from the various countries in this study can be variable. As the study says data from, for example, Greece, Poland and Portugal should be considered with caution. Out of 28 countries (counting the devolved countries of the UK as one) there are the three already mentioned where the quality of data is “low” and 14 where it is “medium” (including France, Sweden and Germany) and only 11, including the UK and Ireland, where the quality is “high”.

The researchers have adjusted for all this so we can be confident that the trend is down but comparisons are not always reliable.

To go back to my starting point – we are better but what do we need to be best? Let’s be frank – best would be never to have to deal with breast cancer at all; next best would be cures for all the types of breast cancers – you are treated and then don’t have to think about it again. Is this realistic in the near future? Best for me would be early diagnosis and then effective treatments (without the worst side-effects) which can keep the disease at bay.

If that doesn’t sound very exciting – there are diseases we can’t cure but can treat effectively such as asthma as David Beckham, Ian Botham, Paula Radcliffe and Alice Cooper all know.

An issue of fraud

2010-08-12T12:19:00.000+01:00

A headline with the words “charities” and “fraud” in is always unnerving. Reports over the weekend on the conviction of a gang of fraudsters who planned to steal millions of pounds from a wide range of charities such as Children in Need, Comic Relief, Banardos and the Lottery were concerning.

There are various types of fraud – the sorts that beset any organisation. However this case highlights a particular issue. The further the donor is away from the beneficiary the more difficult it is to control. Perhaps if donors (and the media) focused less on “administrative expenses” and more on controls this might be less likely.

All the organisations involved were donating money to charities which purported to be supporting work mainly in developing countries but were fraudulent and had been set up for that purpose. The sums of money for each grant were (relatively) small and the work was being done in areas which it would be expensive or even dangerous to visit.

I know that eyes glaze over when we talk about our processes but this highlights how important they are. The financial controls we have regarding the processing of donations and management of our funds are very tight, as you would expect, but the controls we exercise on the spending of the money on research are equally as tight.

The hurdles our researchers have to jump are high and many: the research first has to pass through a review process with external reviewers; then through our Scientific Advisory Board; then through the Trustee Board at which point a lucky (or should I say a very bright) few are awarded a grant. The next set of controls is put into place with a contract. Scientists have to report to us regularly on progress. We bring all our new grantees to a meeting and brief them on what is expected and how hard it is to raise the money. They need to relate the grant that they have received to someone running a marathon or a school having a wear it pink day. Money is not anonymous.

Pointless headline

2010-08-10T14:45:00.003+01:00

In addition to the stream of consultations from Government trawling across the media – there has been no let up in stories on breast cancer – none of them particularly new or revealing. Yesterday morning was no exception. “UK women four times more likely to get breast cancer than Africans” said the Guardian – others narrowed this down to “East Africa”. I am sure that the statistics, such as they are, are probably OK but I refer you to a blog I wrote earlier about the issues facing “Africa” now.

All women in the UK have access to health care. The medical care is there providing they seek it. The earlier they seek it the better their chances for survival. This does not apply to “Africa”. Africa is a continent not a country; there are huge differences in the provision of healthcare in each of the countries and each of the regions in each country and many millions of women have little or no access to healthcare for diagnosis let alone treatment and live and die uncounted.

One of our researchers put this slide together a few years ago and it very neatly encapsulates the risk factors at play. You can work out which are the ones that you have control over and which are outside your control. It may seem irreverent about such a serious subject but a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down – but only one spoon please.

Too much news, not enough information

2010-08-09T13:26:00.001+01:00

I haven’t written for a while because there is too much news, too much happening albeit without much detail always being provided’. Charities in our sector are struggling to keep up with the avalanche of discussions and consultations around the “refresh” of the Cancer Reform Strategy and the Government White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’ published in July and then there are the implications of the Cancer Drugs Fund – the list seems endless.

One thing about having very limited resources, as we do, is that it really focuses the mind on where you put your energies for the greatest impact. Tempting as it may be to indulge in rafts of meetings and discussions and briefing documents each led by a different organisation – if you don’t have the people you can’t. Happily this has a very positive result that you focus on what is important to your stakeholders and feed in to whichever you think is the best group.

We took a view before the election that there were many other charities that would focus on health. Therefore we, as readers will know, took on the Charity Research Support Fund as our campaign. If this fund disappears, less research will be supported. This will lead to a reduction in research, a brain drain of our brightest and best scientists and an inexorable slow down in improving cancer treatment. Our arm is strengthened because we are working with the Association of Medical Research Charities.

On everything else we are working with the Cancer Campaigning Group – watch that space!

Controversies in breast cancer

2010-07-26T11:45:00.001+01:00

Just back from two days in Edinburgh at a conference titled “Controversies in breast cancer”. An unusual conference organized by scientists and clinicians and by invitation only. Papers are not reviewed and there is no press coverage: just a forum for experts in the field to discuss and debate a wide range of topics in breast cancer research. The proceedings will be published online before the end of the year.

The conference is now in its fifth year and draws from a diverse group both geographically (international) and in terms of discipline and it is a refreshing experience. I don’t claim to understand the more esoteric science but one is left in no doubt that scientists are continually challenging each other, and themselves, to decide which paths to follow to do the best for breast cancer patients.

One topic which was rather less controversial than it sounded was titled the “Emerging breast cancer epidemic”. We have seen breast cancer incidence rise steadily in the UK and in fact in the developed world and this is predicted to continue through the next decades. More and more are surviving so mortality (death) rates are going down but just because we can sometimes cure a disease does not make it less of an epidemic.

That breast cancer is the most common cancer in women knows no geographic boundaries – it is a global burden that has doubled in the last 30 years. We are used to hearing stories about the disease burden in developing countries of, say, HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB but cancer is not a rare disease in Africa.

What was also interesting is if you take a country such as France the at risk population for breast cancer changed from 19.1 million in 1970 to 21 million in 2010. In Nigeria it went from 24.6 million to 42 million. As infectious diseases are being more successfully treated, the impact of AIDS is reducing and therefore women are living longer. This trend is going to continue and of course it is a good thing. However the single most significant risk factor for breast cancer is age and as these populations live longer the incidence of breast cancer will increase rapidly.

At present the number of young women developing breast cancer in Africa appears high – this is not due in the main to some genetic difference but more to do with the fact that the women who are diagnosed are educated, economically active and more likely to seek help. There are women in rural areas who die from advanced breast cancer without diagnosis or treatment.

The problems they are facing are so different from ours - adulterated drugs, very few trained oncologists. Screening programmes are not an option – lack of access to mammography let alone the resources to deal with any false positives and of course a lack of a consistent supply of electricity!

So as the control of infectious diseases improves and the scourge of AIDS is reduced; as life expectancy increases and with economic growth changing lifestyles – the breast cancer epidemic is a reality.

All Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer

2010-07-07T17:07:00.001+01:00

On Tuesday I was at the House of Commons for a reception held by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer. The All Party Groups I have been associated with are very effective. They bring together MPs and members of the Lords and the charities and others with an interest in the subject. In this case and the case of the group on breast cancer – this is very much the patients as well.

Paul Burstow MP, who is the Health Minister with responsibility for cancer, announced that the Government will update the Cancer Reform Strategy (CRS). The original strategy was a huge piece of work to which we all contributed and it is really encouraging that the new government is planning to build on that rather than start from scratch.

A White Paper on Health will be published shortly and we understand that the update to the Cancer Reform Strategy will focus on aligning cancer services with the reforms that will be announced in this White Paper. It is really good news for the sector and for patients that the update process will be led by Professor Sir Mike Richards, the National Cancer Director, as he has been a tremendous influence for good in forming policy.

There was talk of making cancer outcomes the best in Europe and dealing with inequalities in care – something which we have been campaigning about for some time. Access to treatments was also mentioned and there was a very moving presentation from an individual who had kidney cancer and had to fight twice for the drugs which have kept him alive – and having a good quality of life.

I won’t say “watch this space” but rather watch out for the White Paper and then for the revision to the Cancer Reform Strategy which will be out sometime in the winter.

Too old to treat?

2010-07-05T17:03:00.000+01:00

I remember my late mother-in-law had a routine check-up when she was in her late eighties and they found a shadow on the lung. No one was very sure what it was and the doctor said that they would watch it as they did not want to operate on her because of her age. Before any discussion could be had my mother-in-law said that she wouldn’t contemplate any treatment anyway as she had lived long enough! There was no question of her being manoeuvred into this position – no one manoeuvred her into doing anything! As she then survived until just a few months short of her century this was probably a wise decision.

But when is old? I am sure that you are as shocked as we are to learn about the discrimination faced by older women with breast cancer. NHS doctors believe women are being denied treatments due to age rather than ability to benefit and this was widely reported in the press last week. A national consultation which was published last week revealed that women over the age of 65 are at risk from exclusion from chemotherapy for example. Only 16 per cent of women over 65 received chemotherapy compared with 77 per cent under 50. We also know that older postmenopausal women are less likely to receive surgery than younger ones. The only acceptable criteria for older people not receiving treatment are personal choice and poor health.

There is a deep irony here as the greatest risk factor for breast cancer is age – the risk increases the older you get. As older postmenopausal women (aged 70 or over), make up roughly a third of the 45,700 women diagnosed with breast cancer each year, it is imperative find out the reasons why they may not be receiving potentially beneficial treatments.

This is why Breast Cancer Campaign is currently supporting research in Manchester which aims to find out whether some older women with operable breast cancer are not being given surgical treatment because of their age rather than choice, health or ability to benefit.

The researcher will interview 550 patients aged 70 and over with operable breast cancer about their general health and choice of treatment. She will use the information collected to establish whether decisions about providing surgical treatment are being based on age even when the patient choice and health would make appropriate to operate.

Knowing the extent to which older women are not given surgery as a result of age, patient choice and poor health will help researchers establish whether these women are being discriminated against. This will provide researchers with evidence to encourage a change in practice and ensure all women receive the best treatment possible regardless of their age.

Campaign's House of Lords awards reception

2010-06-18T15:42:00.006+01:00

Oakwood School receiving Campaign's 'School of the Year' award from Baroness Fookes

Apologies that it has all gone a bit quiet in this blog. The last few weeks have been very inwardly focused on business planning, budgeting, risk assessments and other vital but not very bloggable stuff.

Last night was our annual reception at the House of Lords very graciously hosted by our very first patron, Baroness Fookes. For once the sun shone and our guests were able to go out onto the terrace and enjoy the wonderful view over the River Thames. The event runs like clockwork: as a charity that made its name with events, we have a well-honed plan and crisp teamwork from all staff. All I have to do is make the speech and walk around and talk to people.

It enables us to bring the people who raise the money together with the scientists whose research they are funding. It is important for the scientists to hear their stories so that they are not too distant from the process, and judging from the many excited comments I had from people who had spoken to the scientist whose research they are supporting – our scientists did us proud.

There are awards for the top research team of the year and a number of fundraising and volunteer awards. It is always very difficult to decide these as everyone there has a story to tell and many have gone to great lengths to raise money. Lots of tears and hugs as well. See the list of award winners here.

There was some anxiety from the scientific community about the Charity Research Support Fund which I have written about in the past. Fundraisers were also concerned that we might be forced to support less research if this support is not sustained.

I was also able to share with everyone our delight in achieving The Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For 2010 (number 91) and achieving a 2 Star Status in Best Companies Accreditation 2010. More importantly we were third on the list where staff were asked if they felt they made a difference.

As I said to everyone there, “I am in no doubt that the main reason we all feel that we make a difference is because of all of you. You are our inspiration and our motivation whether it is because we know that we are supporting the best scientists to do the best research or because of all the people who help us raise the money. You can be confident that we are spending the money you have worked so hard to raise most effectively to improve diagnosis, treatment and survival.”

Another day, another ground-breaking discovery!

2010-06-02T15:33:00.001+01:00

If you read the papers or watched the news over the weekend you would think that everyone at Breast Cancer Campaign is busy working on how we close down the charity because no more research is needed. We are moments away from a vaccine to prevent breast cancer.

OK – that is an exaggeration – but not much. “Jab ‘to prevent breast cancer’ may be trialled on women in a year: A revolutionary jab that could prevent and treat breast cancer has been developed”.

As with all these things the reality is quite a bit further from what was printed. I won’t attempt to deal with the science of this, and I am sure that our scientists will have a lot to say about it, but while the research itself is interesting we are not facing a vaccine for breast cancer any time soon. For the non-scientific I think that the article by Dr Mark Porter in today’s Times put it very well.

The breast cancer vaccine is great news — for mice genetically prone to the disease.

UK researchers are generally more restrained in their claims but US researchers are less so, possibly for the reasons Porter outlines.

It isn’t that simple – one of the biggest advances in treatment in the past few years – Herceptin – only works for about 25 per cent of breast cancers. As Dennis Slamon, the scientist whose work over 20 years ago led to the development of Herceptin says, “the only thing that breast cancers have in common is the organ of the body in which they occur”. It isn’t one disease, there won’t be one cure or one way of preventing it, and one drug or new breakthrough won’t fit all.

Breast cancer research cash is in danger of drying up

2010-05-18T12:08:00.004+01:00

Our third Scientific Conference is taking place today with a packed schedule and over 300 delegates from all over the UK and from as far away as Canada, the USA, Nigeria, Poland and Australia.

I will indulge myself my repeating here some facts about Breast Cancer Campaign -

Our mission is to beat breast cancer by funding innovative world-class research to understand how breast cancer develops, leading to improved diagnosis, treatment, prevention and cure.

We are a serious player in the breast cancer research field, currently supporting 113 research projects, worth over £17.1 million in 40 centres of excellence across the UK and Ireland. Over the past 14 years, the charity has awarded 302 grants with a total value of over £31 million to universities, medical schools and research institutes across the UK, and now also in Ireland.

As I told the delegates – they all know that breast cancer is a high profile disease and as the most common cancer in the UK it should be. The picture is completely different for women today than in the 70’s. Thirty years ago only half of women with breast cancer survived for more than five years. Today that figure is around 80 per cent. Women are living longer after breast cancer but simply surviving is not enough and five years is not a lifetime.

This is the good news. The bad news is that breast cancer research cash is in danger of drying up. Potential new life saving breast cancer treatments may never reach the patient if the new Coalition Government fails to continue supporting charity-funded research.

We know it is a difficult and uncertain financial climate but we need reassurance that support funding will remain consistent. A ‘quick fix’ cut will have long term implications for breast cancer research and ultimately impact on the lives of people with breast cancer.

Currently the Charity Research Support Fund contributes to the cost of the research institutions’ utilities such as heating and lighting, leaving medical research charities like ourselves free to fund research.

This is a conference by scientists for scientists – Campaign needs to ensure that the infrastructure continues to be provided to house their research and we can continue to support it.

I saw in the paper this morning that the departing Chief Secretary of the Treasury, Liam Byrne, left a letter for the new guy – David Laws, “Dear Chief Secretary, I am afraid there is no money, Kind regards and good luck.” Apparently it was a joke – just shows how out of touch with the world those chaps who run the country can be.

The abstracts are published today in Breast Cancer Research as a supplement.