17 December 2012

Tablet is recipe for cancer fundraising success

Photo opportunity - 12noon, Monday 17th December 2012, Main reception, Ninewells.

FIONA’S TABLET FUND SHATTERS THE £30,000 MARK

The epic fundraising efforts of a Dundee woman have broken the £30,000 mark in aid of breast cancer research, mainly thanks to sales of her homemade tablet.

Mrs Fiona Edwards, a receptionist in the School of Learning and Teaching within the College of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee, has raised many thousands of pounds in recent years by selling her homemade tablet at running events around Tayside and Fife.

Over the course of 2012 she has raised £5700, which she will present to Professor Alastair Thompson at the University of Dundee Medical School at Ninewells on Monday December 17th.

"This has been another big year for me and I must say a big thank you once again to all of the people who have bought - and hopefully enjoyed! - the tablet," said Fiona. "I’ve had lots of support again this year, from runners at events right across Tayside, students at the University, people at my gym and all over.

"I’ve also had all sorts of additional donations this year, from money raised through a chocolate fund and a crisps fund in my husband’s office to people saving up their coppers or giving money in lieu of Christmas cards.

"One of my highlights for this year was going to a seminar by Professor Thompson about a trial that I helped fund around the drug metformin. This really brought it home to me - and I’ve passed it on to many others - that the money provided was doing something really valuable in the Tayside area and also has already saved lives."

Fiona has now raised £32,000 including gift aid, since she started selling tablet in 2003.

"We are hugely indebted to Fiona for the magnificent contribution she makes to supporting cancer research, and breast cancer in particular, including world leading research in Dundee establishing the value of the antidiabetes drug metformin against breast cancer." said Professor Thompson, who is an internationally-renowned researcher in breast cancer. "I can also vouch for the quality of the tablet, which is delicious!"

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07800 581902