Sarah ran the Reading Half Marathon to support our cancer research
Thank you to our Medical School fundraisers!
Ryan Salmon and alumna Sarah Collard (Economics and Geography, 2008) have recently organised fundraising activity to support vital research at the University of Exeter Medical School, raising funds to support neonatal diabetes and cancer research respectively.
Ryan, who is Director of Logic Contract Services, organised a football match between his employees and Trustee Fire and Security in the autumn. They originally wanted to raise £1000 for neonatal diabetes research at Exeter but managed to raise more than £1300 in total.
Ryan has had personal experience of this research as his daughter was born with neonatal diabetes. Fortunately she was diagnosed within weeks of birth and has been able to lead a fairly 'normal' life with minimal effects from this condition, however he understands this is not the case for everyone.
The money raised will support life-saving testing for children all over the world identifying babies and children who will benefit from a much cheaper and less invasive treatment by switching from insulin injections to tablets.
You can watch a video from the match online by clicking the photo below:
In April Sarah (pictured top left) ran the Reading Half Marathon in support of Exeter’s cancer research. She was inspired to run after the birth of her daughter but the pandemic delayed her plans until this year.
Originally Sarah wanted to raise £250 but she smashed her target to raise a total of £876. The money will support the University’s work into early cancer diagnosis and ensuring more lives can be saved thanks to fast treatment.
Sarah says: “I knew that I wanted to raise money to help fund cancer research, but when I got my alumni leaflet about the University’s work I thought that would be a fantastic cause. If more people are able to have early tests for cancer, or GPs are more able to diagnose it from early symptoms, then this will improve the chance of survival. The University of Exeter is also important to me personally as I met my husband there and made life-long friends. I’m so grateful people have donated to this cause and I hope the money raised will help fund more research to make cancer diagnosis faster, easier and earlier.”
If you have a challenge or event coming up and would consider using it to fundraise for the University then we would love to hear from you – please email us at alumni@exeter.ac.uk for more information.
Date: 6 April 2022