Health – £2,625,550 in 81 grants

The Trustees are providing a grant of £500,000 to Thrombosis Research Trust in honour of their late chairman, Garry Weston. Half of this will be allocated towards endowing the Garry Weston Chair in Molecular and Cell Biology and the remainder to continuing the research into the development of a vaccine into the prevention of heart disease and stroke.

£250,000 is contributed to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s capital appeal to address its desperate shortage of teaching space. The whole of the main building is listed but they are able to redevelop the courtyard spaces. The North Courtyard building was completed in 2004 and they are now replacing the existing 1950’s interior South Courtyard structure with a new fit-for-purpose building, which will incorporate a 300 seat lecture theatre, computer teaching facilities and office space for sixty staff.

The Perinatal Brain Research work at University College London was supported by the Trustees some years ago through a grant to Action Medical Research and they have decided to continue their involvement with this project with a grant of £130,000 direct to UCL. The welfare of babies also features in two other grants. Firstly, £100,000 is donated to St Mary’s Paddington for the creation of an exemplary Birth Centre designed for women with straightforward pregnancies to be managed entirely by midwives, which will augment their existing overstretched maternity facilities. Secondly, ECHO UK, the Effective Cardiac Health in Obstetrics charity, receives a grant of £50,000.

Research grants of £100,000 are made to the Prostate Cancer Research Group and the Restoration of Appearance and Function Trust, reinforcing relationships with these charities which date back over a number of years.

As in previous years, various cancer charities and hospices around the country benefit with grants ranging from £2,000 to £50,000. Two stroke charities each receive £10,000, the Clacton and District Stroke Association and Different Strokes, towards their general running costs. Other conditions are recognised in grants made to Kidney Research UK and the British Liver Trust (both with £50,000), the British Lung Foundation (£30,000), the National Osteoporosis Society (£25,000), the City of London Migraine Clinic, the Dystonia Society and the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (each with £10,000), the National Eye Research Centre and the Primary Immunodeficiency Association (£5,000) and Action Against Allergy (£3,000).