KEY POINTS:
It is the medical Holy Grail - a cure for cancer.
With health authorities predicting a huge increase in cancers as our population ages, the search has taken on a new urgency. Cancer touches the lives of most New Zealanders. Nearly 8000 people die from it in this
country each year. Now you can help do something about it.
The Herald is investigating the latest medical research and highlighting the men and women who are working to stop killer conditions. We also launch a major Christmas reader appeal to raise funds to help New Zealand scientists in their world-leading research.
WHY NOW
Fifty years ago the Herald and the Auckland Cancer Society joined forces in a public appeal to raise £50,000. The public outpouring was so great that the campaign ended up raising £136,000, an astonishing sum then (equal to $5.43 million today), which led the visionary society to set up a small research team.
That team has since grown to 80 dedicated staff based atop the Auckland Medical School near Auckland City Hospital in what is now considered a centre of scientific excellence. The centre has produced eight new drugs - an extraordinary achievement.
It is now working on an exciting new drug to fight prostate, ovarian and lung cancer.
NOW:
# Read Award-winning writer Carroll du Chateau profiles one of the men behind the unit and outlines his successes, and frustrations.
The Quiet Crusaders
NEXT WEEK:
# An experimental drug that could even surpass Herceptin.
# A potential vaccine for melanoma created out of a person's own cancer cells.
# An exciting new drug that is having startling results against lung cancer, the most deadly of cancers.
READER APPEAL:In the lead-up to Christmas you can help the Herald again help to raise money for our doctors and scientists at the Auckland Cancer Research Centre in their quest to save lives.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
You can donate money to the Herald - Auckland Cancer Society Christmas Appeal to help researchers continue their work against cancer.
Donate to:
Herald Cancer Appeal
PO Box 1724
Auckland
Cheques are payable to Cancer Society Auckland
Or donate online at the Auckland Cancer Society's website
You can help save lives by funding leading research