We have now realized and discovered scientifically that the immune system has a major role to play with brain cancer. We know what normal is so hopefully we can tell what abnormal is. And why do I say that? It is because we've now mapped the human genome. I'm hoping that things are going to be ramped up now. And so if we continue on that sort of gradient, then of course, we are not going to find a cure for ages. But historically, brain cancer survival rates and mortality rates have not changed in the last 20/30/40/50 years. Other cancers, for example, breast cancer, the success rates are much higher now bowel cancer, melanoma. And with billions of dollars of research and time and effort, we have now basically flipped those figures so that the mortality rates are about 10%, 5-10% and the success rates are about 90%. When I was a medical student, 30-40 years ago, we were taught that there was almost a 90% mortality rate from leukemia. So it was, it was a no brainer to set up an organization to raise money for it when it was so poorly funded by our government.Ĭharlie Teo: Well, at the current rate, Alberto, it does not look good, because many of the other cancers have improved their survival rates dramatically in the last two or three decades. And it is not a common cancer, gets very, very little funding, because really, it doesn't get the same votes if you fund brain cancer research. And cancers like brain cancer, which is very unattractive, everyone dies, people are very nihilistic about it. How do they be popular? They fund cancers that are, I guess, in inverted commas, popular cancers, so ‘breast cancer, prostate cancer’, they all get extraordinary amounts of funding, disparate to their impact on society. But one of the major things, of course, is that it is not one of the more common cancers. It is probably multifactorial, as to why that happens. If it is killing more than any other disease surely gets the most funding.” But no, Alberto, in all the developed first world countries, it is the least funded of all the cancers. And you're probably sitting back there thinking, “Well, hang on. The brain cancer research community is very, very dependent on non-government organizations raising money for research because governments tend not to fund it. So, that terrible disparity between impact on society, killing our youth, and getting funding is something that I felt I needed to be addressed, and we are. But in fact, it is the lowest and the least funded of all the cancers. And with facts like that, you would think that governments in all those continents would fund it higher than other cancers. So it is a terrible, terrible cancer that's killing our children. It kills more children than any other cancer in developed countries, and kills more children than any other disease in the UK, US, and Australia. Most people are dead within a year of diagnosis. No one will ever deny that it is ranked as the worst cancer known to mankind. It goes like this - brain cancer is devastating. And….Ĭharlie Teo: Look Alberto, it is pretty simple. And I said, “Well, you know this, I think we should fire everyone. I like running, really lean and efficiently and that's too high administration costs.” And a few weeks later, climbed to 73%. And I said to the Board, “You've got to change. We are running at about 58% to 68% overheads.” And it upset me and shocked me. And one of the COO’s of the foundation said, “Charlie, you can't say that anymore. But then I was giving a talk one day, Alberto, and I came off the stage where I would said why you should fund us because we are low cost, a charity and we run lean. And again, over a 10 year period, we raised millions of dollars, and I guess in total up to $20 million over that period of time. We felt that we grew enough to own that space where we could call ourselves Cure Brain Cancer Foundation. That morphed into the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation. Within two or three years, we became the largest funder of brain cancer research in Australia. So, I set up a foundation called the Cure For Life Foundation, which was going to concentrate on brain cancer research. And I didn't find the same thing when I came back to Australia. Charlie Teo: Well, it started I guess, serendipitously I returned from America 20 years ago, where there is a lot of philanthropy and a lot of generous donors to non-government organizations.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |