Anthony Nolan (Isle of Man Friends) group has been raising vital funds for blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan for 25 years. To celebrate we are holding a 25th Anniversary Dinner on Friday 11th November 2016 at the Best Western Palace Hotel and Casino, Central Promenade Douglas starting at 7.30pm.
We wanted someone special to help us celebrate and so we have as our guest speaker a long standing supporter of Anthony Nolan, called Dominic Holland (Comedian, author, broadcaster and after dinner speaker) whose father was born on the Isle of Man and brought up in Onchan. Dominic is a regular on Channel 5’s the Wright Stuff and Have I Got News For You. In addition he is a well respected author and all the proceeds of one of his novels called “Open Links” goes to Anthony Nolan.
Ivan Bratty Chairman of the Friends group, says, ‘I am so proud of our group as over the years we have registered nearly 1600 people from our donor clinics and I am aware of at least 24 incredible people who have donated bone marrow or stem cells and have potentially saved someones live.”
He continued “The Friends group held a donor clinic on 12/13th October at UCM where 107 amazing students signed up to the donor register. This was in response to a Sessional Lecturer at UCM, Chris Kelly, whose brother Matt, has two types of Leukemia, and needs to find a match for a lifesaving stem cell transplant.
I am therefore calling on anyone who has supported the group over the last 25 years to help us once again and support this celebration and fundraiser. Tickets are ?65 (Tables of 10 are ?600) and can be obtained by contacting Ivan Bratty on 852486 or emailing ivanbratty@manx.net.
A raffle and auction at the dinner will help to raise vital funds to help pay for the tissue typing of those donors registered at UCM
Anthony Nolan saves the lives of people with blood cancer, such as leukaemia, by matching them to people willing to donate their bone marrow, or blood stem cells, for a lifesaving transplants.
It also carries out pioneering research to increase stem cell transplant success, and supports patients through their transplant journeys.
Nancy Gray, Senior Community Fundraising Manager at Anthony Nolan, said, ‘The fundraising that the Isle of Man Friends is doing makes such a big difference to people with blood cancer. It costs ?60 to recruit each person to the Anthony Nolan register, so fundraising is a vital part of our lifesaving work. The more fundraising we do, the more potential donors we can recruit onto the stem cell register, and the more lives we can save.’
If you’re not able to attend the dinner, you can still sponsor the event at by contacting Ivan Bratty
Image: Members of the team who helped to run the donor clinic at UCM on 12/13th October where 107 students registered.
L to R Louise Thomas, Chris Kelly and Alice Hirst (Regional Development Manager for Anthony Nolan)
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