Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing visits Dundee site of breast cancer Tissue Bank

Published On Fri 24 Jan 2014 by Roddy Isles

Alex Neil MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, visited the Dundee site of the UK's first national breast cancer tissue bank today, Thursday 23 January.

Professor Alistair Thompson, Chair of Breast Cancer Campaign's Tissue Bank Management Board and Professor of Surgical Oncology, University of Dundee, and Dr Lisa Wilde, Director of Research at Breast Cancer Campaign, met with Alex Neil MSP and told him how this ground-breaking initiative sees four centres around the UK working together as one national resource to house the multi-million pound Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank.

Polly Jones, Scottish Corporate Affairs Manager at Asda, which is a founding partner of the Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank, also attended the visit.

The Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank in Dundee is one of four sites located across the UK. The other sites are located at the University of Leeds, University of Nottingham and the Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University, in London.

The Dundee site is also part of the Tayside Tissue Bank.

The Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank solely stores breast tissue and has been funded by research charity Breast Cancer Campaign, with the help of Asda's Tickled Pink campaign, to help speed up finding a cure for breast cancer, the UK's most common cancer.

The coalition of centres which make up the Tissue Bank store breast tissue samples, donated by patients throughout the country, safely and consistently and are available to scientists whatever their location in the UK and Ireland. Currently there is no such large resource of breast tissue like this available to scientists and doctors anywhere in the world.

From tissue samples researchers can glean vital, but anonymous, information about the patient, the characteristics of their cancer, family history, treatments, and, over time, their effectiveness, and whether the disease progresses or recurs.

Launched in 2010, the Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank is the UK's first national store of breast cancer tissue. Asda's Tickled Pink campaign has contributed £4 million with the support of its customers and colleagues through its Tickled Pink campaign to help establish and continue to support this vital initiative.

Health Secretary Alex Neil said: 'Human tissue is essential for clinical research as it allows scientists to study diseases and find better ways to diagnose, prevent, and treat cancer in the future. That is why the Scottish Government is investing in the Scotland-wide network of tissue banks to maximise the availability of human tissue for Scottish research.

'I am delighted to visit the Tayside Tissue Bank and the Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank, and hear how Asda's Tickled Pink fundraising campaign is helping support research into breast cancer. We recognise the great contribution charities and other fundraisers make in allowing pioneering research to happen across the county.

'Of course those who deserve the most thanks for the success of our tissue banks, are the patients who make their tissue available for research. By giving in this way they are helping us to beat cancer.'

Professor Alistair Thompson, Chair of the Tissue Bank Management Board and Professor of Surgical Oncology, University of Dundee, said; 'We welcome the visit by Alex Neil and funders to see first-hand the long term hard work that has gone on for nearly two decades to establish tissue banking. Through the hard work of Breast Cancer Campaign, pathologists and others, the Tissue Bank based in Dundee has supported advances in breast cancer research globally. We are very grateful to the people of Tayside and Fife for supporting this world leading endeavour.'

Polly Jones, Asda's Scottish Corporate Affairs Manager, said: 'Asda launched the Tickled Pink campaign with the aim of raising awareness and funding for the treatment of breast cancer in the UK. Our customers and colleagues have now raised over £35 million for our charity partners Breast Cancer Campaign and Breast Cancer Care through a range of fundraising initiatives.

'We're immensely proud that the money raised has helped to support this ground-breaking research at the UK's first national breast cancer tissue bank at Dundee. We see Tickled Pink as our chance to do something that really makes a difference - now and in the future.'

Visit www.breastcancertissuebank.org

Notes to editors

About Breast Cancer Campaign:

  • On 1 October, Breast Cancer Campaign launched the Gap Analysis 2013, which is the most rigorous analysis of the gaps in scientific knowledge and treatment for breast cancer that has ever been undertaken. The analysis identifies gaps that, if addressed, will help us overcome - prevent, cure and outlive - breast cancer.
  • Help us find the cures sets out the actions Breast Cancer Campaign will take to address the gaps, as a leading research charity and in collaboration with others.
  • Breast Cancer Campaign aims to raise £100 million to address these actions over the next ten years.
  • The Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank, the UK's first ever national breast cancer tissue bank is a unique collaboration with four leading research institutions to create a vital resource of breast cancer tissue for researchers across the UK and Ireland. Visit www.breastcancertissuebank.org
  • Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK and accounts for nearly one in three of all cancers in women
  • In the UK, around 50,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year - that's around 138 a day.
  • Visit breastcancercampaign.org or follow us at twitter.com/bccampaign

ASDA's Tickled Pink campaign

  • In 1996 Asda launched the Tickled Pink campaign with the aim of raising awareness and funding for the treatment of breast cancer in the UK. It's now one of the most established corporate charity partnerships in the UK.
  • Tickled Pink benefits two charities, Breast Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Campaign, and over the last 17 years Asda colleagues, customers and supporters have helped to raise over £35 million, including over £5 million in 2013 alone.
  • Over the years Asda has fully integrated the Tickled Pink campaign into the business, and supports the charity partnerships as creatively as they can. They leverage their relationships with big household names like Heinz, Coca-Cola and Weetabix to create limited edition big-brand products exclusive to Asda - all of which come with iconic pink packaging - and percentage of profits from the sale of each product goes directly to Tickled Pink.
  • Customers and colleagues from the 580 Asda stores across the UK - 59 in Scotland - are an integral part of the Asda Tickled Pink fundraising campaign every year. From the CEO to colleagues in Asda stores, a huge number have dedicated their time to fundraising through a whole host of sponsored challenge events. These include running marathons, cycling almost 1,000 miles from Lands End to John O'Groats and hosting large raffles and tombolas to boost the Tickled Pink fundraising total.

Tayside Tissue Bank
The Tayside Tissue Bank is operated by a team of clinicians, scientists and research nurses located within the University of Dundee Medical School at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee. The Bank is part-funded by the Scottish Government (through the Chief Scientist Office).

Scotland's Tissue Bank Model
The Chief Scientist Office at the Scottish Government and NHS Research Scotland have collaborated to link all Scottish Health Boards in a national system to supply human tissue for research. The Scottish Government provides £1 million of funding for four tissue banks in Lothian, Glasgow, Grampian and Tayside. The model is designed to encourage the use of tissue in research and boost the availability of tissue. To access tissue samples, researchers first contact their regional tissue bank who will advise on the availability of the tissue across NHS Scotland and assist in arranging for the collection and delivery of the needed tissue.

 

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