17 December 2013

Fiona's tablet fund hits the £40,000 mark

The epic fundraising efforts of a Dundee woman have reached the £40,000 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, nightclasses and through friends and family around Tayside and Fife.

Over the course of 2013 she has raised £6200, which she presented to Professor Alastair Thompson at the University of Dundee Medical School today (Tuesday 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.

'The tablet is sold mainly at the Youth Football, my gym, and running events around Tayside - fellow runners are always good to me. Also I go to Spanish nightclasses weekly at Grove Academy and beforehand I stand outside and sell to all the other nightclasses. I still have regulars who pay me £1 a week not to eat the tablet! I also have my 80-year-old mother selling it weekly at her church.

'Many of my supporters like the idea that the money is raised locally and stays locally supporting local research especially when I say that it has funded a successful drugs trial in the past.'

Taking into account Gift Aid from 2003 when Fiona started fundraising, the amount raised is now £40,000.

'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
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University of Dundee
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E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
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