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Newspaper's £40,000 bid to fund meningitis research

A weekly newspaper has launched an audacious bid to fund the work of a medical researcher for one year.

The Gloucestershire Gazette is hoping to collect £40,000 over the next 12 months to pay the salary of a vaccine researcher to work at Meningitis UK.

The charity is celebrating its tenth birthday this year after being set up by Steve and Gloria Dayman, from Alveston near Bristol, following the death of their 14-month-old son Spencer to the disease.

The Gazette will publish a monthly roll of honour of everyone who donates to the campaign and cut-out slips for postal pledges while gazetteseries.co.uk will have links through to online donation pages.

Reporter Liza-Jane Gillespie said: “This is the first time we’d had a charity of the year. The editorial team decided it would be Meningitis UK because of the local connection.

“It’s a local family behind the charity and they do a lot work here with people affected by the disease.

“Over the next month or so we will be having a story a week focussing on local people affected by the disease, some of them with children who have died.

“Hopefully, we will be having a story soon with someone who survived the disease as a child. We’ll also publicise lots of fundraising events over the region and encourage people to hold their own.”

In 2007, Meningitis UK launched an appeal to raise £7m in seven years. The charity believes this figure will offer sufficient funding to help develop a vaccine for Group B, the most common form of the disease which Spencer Dayman died from. Several vaccinations already exist for other strains of meningitis.

Mr Dayman told the Gazette: “To have a company such as the Gazette backing our efforts is going to give a massive boost to us.

“Support and coverage like this is really going to make a difference to reaching our goal. It will also give all our supporters much deserved recognition.”

Meningitis UK media officer Philippa Walker added: “We’re really grateful to the Gazette for choosing us as their charity of the year.

“The paper has always given us great support in terms of press coverage but to be the subject of a sustained campaign, over 12 months, will make a huge difference both in terms of fundraising and awareness.

“The timing of the campaign’s launch is perfect too as February is when cases of meningitis peak and it’s vitally important to make people aware of the symptoms and the need to act quickly.”

Comments

Grace (12/02/2009 19:13:16)
A girl from out school has got meningitis so i hope there will be a cure soon, has taken our school very sadly.