The charity seeks to work with clinical and research teams at any hospital in the UK, Europe or North America that has a determination to develop PDT procedures for the benefit of patients.

We will work closely with the hospitals and medical units, funding the cost of procedures, but as a general rule, do not feel that our role is to provide equipment to hospitals, and nor is it to directly employ staff at hospitals.

The expectation is that the PDT drug companies will, as the minimum, provide the drugs used in the trials free of charge. This is accepted policy from most charity funders.

Management of donated funds

Where donors have clearly indicated the desire for funds donated to be used for a specific trial, it will be our duty to see that those wishes are met. As and when the budget required to fund a particular is reached, the fund will be closed, and a new one opened.

Where funds donated have not been requested to be spent in a particular way, those funds will be allocated to trials where there might be a shortfall in the funding requirement.

A percentage of funds raised will have to be used for administration costs, advertising, PR and salaries. The intention is to keep the use of donated funds to an absolute minimum. Of total personal donations, we would not expect costs to be more than 10%, meaning that 90% plus of donated, personal funds, will be used to fund trials in the future.

Keeping in contact with donors

Once a person has donated, they have the option of whether or not they wish to receive updates of the progress of their chosen PDT trial. This will be done by email. We expect to post video clips of treatments, and interviews with patients. Example of such interviews are featured in the Video Clips section.

Enquiries by mail

Despite the desire to raise significant funds, we wish to keep the running costs of the charity to the absolute minimum. If at all possible, it would be a great deal easier for the charity’s team to respond via email.

Funds donated from North America

Funds donated from citizens living in North America are expected to be spent on trials taking place in Canada or the USA.

Who decides which trials are chosen for public funding?

The Trustees have a quite simple philosophy here. It is quite obvious to those medical researchers within the PDT ‘world’ which trials have the best chances of success. There are relatively few PDT specialists working in areas such as vulval cancer, for example. The charity’s aim in all such cases is to encourage those specialists to work and collaborate together, and to agree a unified approach to running and managing their trial. This means that such decisions are theirs – not the charity’s – and they must report to the charity’s new Trials Director (to be appointed) on progress.

In the case of PDT and lung cancer, for instance, the charity has received two expressions of interest to develop the new lung PDT work. We have asked both teams to work together. By working together, they can achieve the target end result of an approved treatment more quickly.

Charity Trustees

There are currently four Trustees of the charity. They are:

Professor Stephen Bown,Director of the National Medical Laser Centre at University College Hospital in London,

Mr Colin Hopper, Senior Maxillo Facial Surgeon at University College Hospital in London,

Sir Walter Bodmer FRCPath, FRS, Cancer & Immunogenetics Laboratory, Cancer Research UK, and

Robert Longman Plarion Ltd, Melbourn, Hertfordshire.

Invitations to become Trustees have been extended to Sandra Verkuyten OBE, Professor Harry Moseley and Dr Alison Curnow. The desire is to appoint a Trustee with specific banking and investment skills. The diligent management of donors’ money is of paramount importance to all involved with the charity.

The Director and Founder of the charity is David Longman.

Report and Accounts

A copy of the most recent Report and Accounts will be available soon via this page to download.

Who is funding the charity’s running costs?

We have to be absolutely transparent that funds used to run the charity should come from donors WHO KNOW THEIR funds are being used in this way, and by PDT drug companies and equipment manufacturers. We see absolutely no conflict of interest in being funded in this way, given that we will be totally transparent with the companies and individuals doing so.