Top scientist's help for local youth groupA Loughborough group which provides a wide range of educational
activities for youngsters has been given a major boost in its fundraising
appeal from an unexpected source.
A Loughborough group which provides a wide range of educational
activities for youngsters has been given a major boost in its fundraising
appeal from an unexpected source.Loughborough Youth Affairs, which has its base in Mountfields
Lodge Youth Centre, has kept its doors open for local teenagers during school
holidays for the last six years, arranging many outside activities including
camping holidays and visits to the Millennium Dome and Nelson's
Flagship.This year's planned programme is estimated to cost around
£4,000 and the group has so far raised half of this. Now, it has been
boosted by a £750 donation from one of the country's top scientists
brains, Dr Simon Campbell, who was in the town to give a lecture to staff at
Loughborough's medicines research company AstraZeneca R&D
Charnwood.The firm has a policy of allowing its own highly qualified staff
to lecture around the country but any fee received has to be handed over to a
worthy cause. But the company was surprised when Dr Campbell, the former Head
of Discovery at Pfizer, asked for the £750 honorarium he was offered to
be given to a local charity."Dr Campbell, who is one of the most accomplished medicine
research directors in the country, was here to give a talk to around 100 of our
scientists on his personal view of the science and art of drug discovery which
we all found extremely interesting and stimulating," a spokeswoman for
AstraZeneca said. "But he surprised us when he made the magnificent gesture of
donating his fee to a local cause."Andrew Lake of Loughborough Youth Affairs also expressed his
gratitude to Dr Campbell, saying the group gave youngsters aged 11 to 16 years
the opportunity to take part in environmental, canal boat and camping trips
during the summer holidays."These need a large sum of money and, although we have raised a
considerable sum already, Dr Campbell's kind donation had given us just the
boost our fundraising efforts need," he said.Ends
