£24m campaign to find the key to scar-free healing ‘within a generation’

A CAMPAIGN has been launched aiming to eliminate scarring in injured patients “within a generation”.

The Scar Free Foundation wants to research treatments that may mean patients can recover from injuries or operations without permanent scars.

The campaign needs to raise £24 million in research from the UK within five years to start an international programme that it claims could be as important as “discovering antibiotics”.

It was presented to the Royal College of Surgeons yesterday with a speech from India Gale, 16, who was scarred in an accident aged three. She said: “I’d never even heard of scar free healing and didn’t know it was possible.”

Scientists hope to use stem cells and information from the Human Genome Project and look at how tadpoles and some frogs can heal without scarring.

Around 10,000 people in the UK survive serious burns every year.

Simon Withey, consultant surgeon at the Royal Free and University College Hospital, said: “If the solution to minimise scarring is identified, the impact would be enormous.”