Cancer specialist makes plea for tissue

Lutterworth: Professor Geraldine Thomas – originally from Dunton Bassett – is now Professor of Molecular Pathology at Imperial College London and also Director of Scientific Services – Wales Cancer Bank.

She travelled from Swansea to talk to Lutterworth Rotary and Inner Wheel.

Both clubs have been collecting money for Cancer Research, Macmillan Cancer Support, Leicester Hospice, the Rainbows children's hospice and Lymphoedema Research.

Professor Thomas gave a talk about the partnership between patients and scientists and said that a major stumbling block in cancer research is a lack of human tissue to study.She explained how the Wales Cancer Bank developed from a simple idea over a pint in the pub to a complicated project which enabled scientists to study residual tissue taken from patients at their diagnosis of cancer.

She encouraged members of her audience to become active in the debate over cancer research in the UK, and to give a positive response if asked by their doctor to donate samples to cancer banking initiatives.