General Accident has announced plans of a groundbreaking new partnership with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) and Macmillan Cancer Relief.
The new venture was launched at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and it is hoped the initiative will raise £200,000 for the two charities in the first 12 months of the three year scheme.
General Accident has pledged to donate 10% of each new home insurance policy purchased from a special charity hotline to ICRF and Macmillan. This revenue will be topped up with funds from sponsorship events organised by the insurer’s staff.
Bob Newton, general manager of General Accident, said that the company’s desire to reinforce its community support throughout the UK was due to “genuine altruistic principles”.
He said the insurer has championed the work of ICRF and Macmillan and highlighted the universal effect cancer had on people’s lives. Statistics show one in three of the population will have some form of cancer in their lifetime, with almost everyone having a friend or relative affected by the disease.
Newton stressed that General Accident wanted to help fund important research. It was particularly appropriate that the launch venue was Bart’s hospital as it is the base for one third of cancer research in the UK.
The value of backing research initiatives was demonstrated by the unveiling of a new technique developed by ICRF. This latest treatment may lead to less surgery for many women with breast cancer.
Currently, the only way to diagnose the spread of breast cancer to the underarm is to risk unnecessary surgery.
Professor Keith Britton, head of the ICRF Nuclear Medicine Unit, explained: “Special antibodies called Mabs, which have been designed to stick to cancer cells, are armed with a tiny amount of radioactivity and injected.” He added this technique was 90% correct in predicting cancer spread.