Saturday 4th July
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Report written by Jade
On arrival we set to work to ensure the venue looked the part before the doors opened. The team mucked right in with:
Unloading & Labelling: Flexing our muscles to unload crates of delicious food, followed by putting our best handwriting to use to write out recipe and ingredient labels.
Table Decorating: Transforming the space by dressing and decorating tables to create a warm, welcoming atmosphere.
The Inevitable Gardening: Look, we just couldn't help ourselves. Sweeping away summer leaves and digging out unruly weeds near the entrance, we staged a quick intervention to make sure the catwalk looked pristine.
Once the guests started arriving, we switched gears into hosting mode, greeting attendees with big smiles and doing whatever else we could to help.
After all the hard work, we were treated to the live entertainment, but the fun didn't stop there. When the event needed an extra hand, one of the team stepped up to support the fashion show.
It was an incredible, action-packed extended session for a fantastic cause. Well done to everyone involved.
The Glioblastoma Campaign was established by Baroness Margaret McDonagh and her sister Dame Siobhain McDonagh, the Member of Parliament for Mitcham and Morden. When Margaret was diagnosed with glioblastoma, they did the research and were appalled with what they learnt. They discovered that the treatment available on the NHS was woefully inadequate. All the money was being directed elsewhere. Doctors were being trained in other cancers with glioblastoma left by the wayside. Clinical trials were non-existent. The usual surgery and radiotherapy were available, but chemotherapy was being carried out with a drug stuck in a time warp. Margaret was too unwell to withstand the chemotherapy but, with private care from Dr Paul Mulholland, she was put on a regime of immunotherapies and hyperthermic treatments. The machine for the hyperthermic treatment was in Germany. Sometimes Margaret could barely get on the plane. Margaret and Siobhain launched a campaign and raised the funds to support glioblastoma research. Dr Mulholland now has a hyperthermic machine to use in the UK. Margaret died in June 2023, but the campaign continues. Dame Siobhain is excited by the Win-Glio trial programme, established in Margaret’s memory, and optimistic about the results it may deliver.
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