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Diane Yeo. It was both an honour and a great pleasure to be asked to be one of the first Patrons of CANCERactive and I have watched the organisations development with pride. Its holistic approach, its open mind and its pioneering spirit are a great tribute to its founder and a wonderful memorial to his daughter.
My own daughter was stuck down by a brain tumour at the age of fifteen and shortly afterwards my son had Hodgkins Lymphoma. This double whammy led to my becoming Chief Executive of Sargent Cancer Care (now CLIC Sargent) and transforming that organisation from a small, reactive one into the well known national charity it is today.At Sargent we used music, both as a fundraising tool and as a means of communicating with people. I quickly discovered that there appeared to be real health benefits too.
CANCERactive founder Chris came to see me right at the start and we discussed the directions in which the organisation might go. I have been delighted to see that his vision, his focus and his enthusiasm for the cause have not wavered.
Since leaving Sargent I have started up and run a number of other organisations where I have been able to indulge my interest in using the arts to benefit health. For example, at the Chelsea and Westminster Health Charity not only is there now a world renowned art collection on the walls of the hospital but weekly concerts are held in the atrium and we funded the first quantitative study undertaken in Britain to show the real benefits of the arts to health.
At the Arts Educational Schools, which I chair, I am working to develop awareness of the quality of life and health enhancing properties of the arts.
At the University of Westminster, where I am a Governor, we now have highly respected courses in oriental medicine and our latest fundraising campaign is to restore the original Lumiere brothers cinema and open it as an arts theatre.
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