BACK in 1982 a 29 year old man died from cancer diagnosed too late for effective treatment. Determined that something positive should come from the tragedy, Paul Pitt's mother, Jean, founded Quest Cancer Research, aimed at developing more effective early detection tests for cancer.
Two months ago my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. Three weeks ago, despite having survived two bouts of cancer, she died in Harefield Hospital.
Knowing her support for Quest I tried to telephone Jean Pitt to offer her charity a donation. I was told that earlier this year she had been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, given three days to live and had died the next day.
As unspeakably painful as all these tragedies were for those touched by them, they were not uncommon -- in fact one in three of us will develop cancer at some stage in our lives. The earlier the diagnosis, the better one's chances of survival, and for this reason I would like to appeal to Journal readers to support Quest which has been hard hit by the death of Jean.
Below I've summarised just a few of Quest's outstanding achievements and would implore readers to help this work continue by sending a donation to Quest Cancer Research at Woodbury, Harlow Road, Roydon, Essex, CM19 5HF.
Quest has offered hope to the 440,000 sufferers of cervical cancer through their development of HAD (hydrolysed DNA assay) which has the potential dramatically too increase the accuracy of tests designed to predict and identify pre-cancerous cells.
The latest Quest-developed microscopy techniques, used in conjunction with new computer technology, has made a significant contribution towards analysing genetic changes in lung, breast and cervical cancers.
Another recent Quest development is helping scientists in their fight against gastric cancer.
Quest, incidentally, is also the perfect choice for those who also care about animals as well as people -- uniquely among cancer research charities, it neither conducts nor funds any experiments on animals.
NEIL HANSEN
(Name and address supplied)
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