Charity provides £56,000 funding for hospital’s research project into serious blood condition

LIBRA chairman Andrew Lodge said: “I would like to thank supporters from across Sussex who have continued to donate and fundraise throughout lockdown.

“We have received generous donations and many of our supporters have taken up online fundraising activities via our website libralionscharity.org.

“We wish the haematology team the very best with this groundbreaking genetic research project.

“They are leading the way with this research and we hope that the results bring about more positive outcomes for patients with aplastic anaemia and those with related blood cancers.”

King’s College Hospital was recently selected as the site to carry out research on samples obtained from 210 patients with AA, treated throughout Europe as part of a clinical trial.

To complete the research Professor of haemato-oncology Ghulam Mufti, who is leading the study alongside his colleague Professor Judith Marsh, requested £56,000 of funding.

LIBRA trustees agreed to support the project so the professors and their team can carry out in-depth analysis of the genes of the immune system known as ‘HLA types’ on all samples.

Professor Mufti said: “The detailed analysis will enable us to determine whether specific HLA types are associated with AA and the emergence of malignant clones.

“It will also reveal how the immune system may or may not deal with such cells when they are present at low levels in the blood.

“We are so incredibly grateful to this forward-thinking charity and its supporters for providing vital funding towards this project.

“The results from the study will be pivotal in understanding key questions in a disease that carries incredibly significant mortality and morbidity.

“More importantly, it will also allow novel therapies for this disease as well as acute myeloid leukaemia or myelodysplastic syndromes.”

---

A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton:

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Stay safe, and best wishes.