Photo Opportunity: 10 am, Tuesday, 20 January, Wellcome Trust Biocentre, University of Dundee
The School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee is to benefit from the generosity of leading supermarket chain Tesco, when Sir Philip Cohen receives a generous donation tomorrow bringing the University's fundraising effort in the local Tesco stores to over £15,000.
Throughout the month of August, students and senior scientists from Wellcome Trust Biocentre were stationed at Tesco stores throughout Tayside with their collecting buckets to raise money for Diabetes Research within the new Centre for Interdisciplinary Research. Over this period shoppers gave generously to the University campaign and no less than £13,241 was raised.
Tesco agreed to add 20% to everything that was collected and tomorrow at 10 am, Pamela Campbell, Scottish Marketing Manager for Tesco, will present Sir Philip Cohen with a cheque for £2,648, bringing the total raised in this way to £15,889.
Sir Philip said: "We are very grateful to Tesco for letting us fundraise at many of their stores in Tayside which has not only raised a significant sum, but has also been important in raising the local profile of the campaign. No less than 66 of our staff helped with the collections in August and we were all incredibly impressed by the generosity of the citizens of Tayside who gave at a rate of over £1 per minute during the times we collected."
Pam Campbell, Scottish Marketing Manager for Tesco said: "As the leading retailer in Scotland, we were proud to support such a great cause. The new centre will not only be a huge benefit for important scientific research, but will also be a big boost for Dundee and Scotland as a whole."
The campaign, launched by actor and Dundonian, Brian Cox, in April 2003, aims to raise the final £4m to build the Centre which will be adjacent to world famous Wellcome Trust Biocentre.
The new Centre - scheduled to be completed by mid-2005 - will house 260 scientists, 70 of whom will be working to understand the causes of diabetes and how to develop improved treatments. Diabetes affects more than 12,000 people in Tayside and nearly 2 million people in the UK. Diabetes is a major epidemic of the developed world. It is anticipated that by 2015 more than 7% of the UK population will be affected by diabetes and treating its long term complications will take up 20% of the NHS budget.
By Jenny Marra, Head of Press 01382 344910, out of hours: 07968298585, j.m.marra@dundee.ac.uk