A local foundation is extending a $1.5-million challenge to Londoners to help expand a cancer research facility within the city.
The Gerald C. Baines Foundation committed half of the $3-million needed to expand its Translational Cancer Research centre on Tuesday. The foundation is now asking the public to match their donation over the next year.
“Public support through donations helped create the Baines Centre, which has become a game changer for improved cancer treatments and better patient outcomes,” said Kirk Baines, chair of the Gerald C. Baines Foundation. “We are asking for the public’s help again, to expand the potential of the centre even further.”
The centre is located in the Lawson Victoria Research Laboratory facility, adjacent to the London Health Sciences Centre’s London Regional Cancer Program.
The money would be used to acquire advanced equipment and software for an imaging lab in the centre. It would also be used to fund a number of medical and research positions needed to expand and coordinate the centre’s cancer clinical trial capacity, cancer research, and work in cancer imaging.
“The funding announced today is transformational” says Dr. Bauman, chair/chief, oncology, LHSC. “It will allow the group to grow and explore cancer problems that bring advances in cancer biology, cancer imaging and cancer treatment research together.”
The Baines centre allows researchers and physicians to collaborate together in the same space, to apply new discoveries to patient care quicker.
Donations can be made through the London Health Sciences Foundation at www.lhsf.ca.