Make a pledge to beat cancer

This is Professor Duncan Baird. He’s made a pledge to help beat cancer and Cancer Research is commited to helping him. Help them both by making a pledge to leave a gift in your Will

How important is Cancer Research UK’s funding to your work?

It’s absolutely fundamental. Without it I couldn’t have continued as a research scientist and would have ended up changing career. My lab is supported by Cancer Research UK via a five-year programme grant. This funding provides stability and allows us to develop more ambitious programmes than we could on a standard three-year research contract.

Why did you get into researching cancer?

Initially it was intellectual curiosity and the hope that my work might help patients. On a more personal level, both of my parents died of cancer. For both, it was very sudden and brutal. My mother went from diagnosis to death in a matter of months and didn’t get to say goodbye to her family. It’s for people like my parents that I want to keep working to understand cancer and develop more effective therapies.

What are you researching at the moment?

Telomeres – the structures that cap the ends of chromosomes, protecting them from damage. Telomeres also play a role in cancer development and ageing.

Our lab has developed the highest resolution approach for measuring the length of telomeres. We’ve also defined the length at which telomeres become dysfunctional and chromosomes start to get damaged. In collaboration with Professors Fegan and Pepper of Cardiff University, we’ve shown that telomere length can be used to predict survival and the response to treatment of patients with blood cancers, including chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, multiple myeloma and breast cancer.

How optimistic are you about the future of cancer treatment?

I’m very optimistic. While the mainstay of cancer treatment remains toxic chemotherapies, the efforts of research in the last 30 years to gain a deeper understanding of cancer are now bearing fruit. New targeted agents are becoming available, some of which have transformed the outcomes of cancer patients.

Did you know that one third of all Cancer Research UK funding comes from Gifts in Wills?

I knew that a significant amount of Cancer Research UK funding came from Wills. It’s inspiring to think that so much of the funding that keeps our lab going has come from people who have sadly passed away, but have pledged to give money that can be put towards finding more effective therapies for cancer patients.