The Neil Adam Cancer Research Fund
At the end of 2010 Andy Kerr heard the news that his friend of 20 years, Neil Adam, had received a terminal prognosis for his rare form of cancer – nerve sheath sarcoma.
This motivated Andy, Neil, his wife Linda, and a group of committed friends to get together and raise money for Cancer Research UK.
Supporting the Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Project
The group of family and friends chose to fundraise specifically for the Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Project led by Professor Frame.
This research project is already revealing opportunities to develop new treatments designed to stop cancer spread. They got started by creating an online fundraising page on the My Projects website and set themselves an ambitious target of £10,000.
Getting together to help beat cancer
Linda’s sister Chris kick-started the fundraising with a sponsored walk, and Andy and son Robert cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats taking them to the halfway target in record time!
With momentum growing, other friends began getting involved – Shaun, Anne and Becky ran a tea party and pilates workshop and daughter Emily ran 10k’s and a half marathon. Neil and Linda’s niece Becky even went vegetarian for a month.
When Neil’s employer McCormick donated a massive £5,000 from their Charity Day the original target was quickly increased. The fundraising for 2011 ended in a dinner dance and auction bringing the total to more than £17,500.
An incredible year of fundraising
Andy would encourage anyone thinking of fundraising for Cancer Research UK to “get stuck in” and set a realistic but challenging target.
Andy says “Cancer touches all of us in our lives and people’s generosity has amazed me throughout this year of fundraising. It’s surprising what a group of friends can achieve when they put their minds to it."
"As a group, our network of friends extends much further than any individual’s and this helps with raising money for the project. We’ve all benefitted from the common aim of raising money for such a worthy cause”.
Sadly Neil passed away on 21 January 2012 after a long and very brave battle with cancer. His family and friends have kept the fundraising page open so you can make a donation and support the Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Project.
Get involved
Has the Neil Adam Cancer Research Fund inspired you to support a specific cancer research project?
Find out more about what research projects you can fundraise for on the My Projects website and help us save even more lives.