Jane E. Brody’s  “The Road to Cancer Treatment Through Clinical Trials,” featured in the New York Times today, is a fantastic quick read that highlights the achievements of clinical trials in the last several decades. She discusses the incredible progress that has been made, particularly for cancer affecting children. However, she also notes that while 80-90% of young patients participate in clinical trials, only about 5% of adult patients join a trial. This figure poses a serious problem for the scientists and doctors who are looking to improve treatments.

What the article does not discuss, because it is written for an American audience, is the serious lack of funding for clinical trials here in New Zealand. If we don’t provide better funding for clinical trials, patients here will miss out on the opportunity to participate in this essential research.

To read the article, click here.

If you’re moved to help us fund clinical trials, you can donate or reach out to us to help us fundraise or spread the word!

We are delighted to be the recipient of the Turner’s charity auction! The public had the opportunity to bid for a hot laps ride in the P1 McLaren, the only one of its kind in New Zealand! The auction was set up on TradeMe, with all funds going straight to GICI.

In conjunction with the charity auction, our Chairman, Grant Baker, put his collection of Supercars on display to raise awareness for GICI. He and his cars were featured in Stuff.co.nz, check out the story & video here. 

We have good news and a quick favour to ask you. GICI has made it to the final round of the Potentia Unsung Heroes Charity contest for $10,000—we submitted a video and now it’s up to the public to decide the winner.

We would be incredibly grateful if you could take one minute to head to Facebook and vote for GICI!

We have found the format and spacing on the voting page a bit confusing but you click the “VOTE” button below our video (which is the last video on the page) and enter your email address. We have also noticed that Potentia’s Facebok page does not seem to work well on mobile devices so it’s easiest to do from a PC. If your link isn’t working, you can follow the top post on our Facebook page.

We would also really appreciate if you could share the message to your friends and family and encourage them to vote! We think GICI epitomises an “unsung hero” charity and $10,000 could help us make a real difference.

Thank you so much for your support!