On 29 April , Pamela Campbell, Marketing Director for Tesco was one of the many guests at the Scottish premiere of X Men 2 held in aid of the University's CIR fundraising campaign. Pam enjoyed the film but more importantly she became interested in helping the campaign to raise £4m to build a world class centre of excellence dedicated to developing drug treatments for the treatment of diabetes and tropical diseases.
Pam approached the university in mid-July and offered help from Tesco which Sir Philip Cohen very quickly agreed to accept. In essence the campaign was given the chance to fundraise throughout the month of August in Tayside stores with collection tins at each till point at each Tayside store and collection points outside certain stores.
It was decided that the Tesco campaign would focus on the need to raise money for diabetes research - the centre will house more than 50 scientists investigating the development of more effective drug treatments.
The fundraising team swung quickly into action - special sealed fundraising buckets were ordered, flyers, providing information on the campaign and what the new building and the teams of scientists to be housed in the research centre hope to achieve, were produced in record time by the University's design team and tee-shirts in a particularly lurid shade of gold were ordered so that the 'volunteers' achieved maximum stand-out! Professor Cohen and Professor Dario Alessi used all their persuasive powers to ensure that research team leaders, students and staff were fully aware of the opportunity to raise a substantial amount of money by collecting outside Tesco stores and a team of enthusiastic volunteers were signed up to give their time to the cause.
On 1 August a photo call was arranged to announce the campaign at Tesco Riverside with Sir Philip and the WTB team leaders and Pam Campbell and the Tesco team. For the next four weeks the teams were assiduous in their efforts to raise as much money as possible. Sir Philip and Dario were particularly energetic spending a total of 162 hours shaking buckets outside Tayside stores. Sir Philip and his wife Professor Tricia Cohen also personally matched the amount of money they raised over the second weekend of the campaign (£1,009).
£13,241 was raised through the campaign and Tesco has agreed to match this by adding a further 20% on top to make a total amount raised as £15,889. Sir Philip said, "We are so incredibly grateful to everyone involved in this fundraising effort - particularly Tesco for allowing us access to their stores, to the Tayside residents whose generosity towards our fundraising efforts over the years never ceases to amaze me and to our volunteers who gave so generously of their time. The campaign has further increased our profile and we are working hard to ensure that this exposure is translated into further successful fundraising initiatives in the coming months."
4% of Scottish people have diabetes and this figure is expected to double over the new ten years. Diabetes is the most common cause of blindness in the developing world, a major cause of heart attacks, and reduces average life expectancy by more than 10 years.
Anyone wishing to contribute to the campaign should contact Professor Sir Philip Cohen, on p.cohen@dundee.ac.uk, or Joan Concannon on 345565, j.concannon@dundee.ac.uk