Southampton Football Club is proud to be supporting World Pancreatic Cancer Day on Thursday 17th November.
Through Kelvin Davis’s heavy involvement with the Liver & Pancreatic Research and Development Cancer Charity, Saints will be helping to raise further awareness of a cause close to the former goalkeeper’s heart.

Kelvin is now patron and chairman of the Liver & Pancreatic Research and Development Cancer Charity, having got to know its founder, Mo Abu Hilal, who performed emergency appendix surgery on his wife, Kelly, in 2014.

The goalkeeper’s testimonial back in May raised vital funds for the Southampton-based charity, and now the club will be showing further support for an important cause.

Throughout the week, the Ted Bates statue at St Mary’s has been lit a violet hue, along with the O2 Guildhall, to mark World Pancreatic Cancer Day.

Liver and Pancreatic Cancer affects more than 15,000 patients in the UK every year. There is still a scarcity of funds dedicated to research to improve early detection and survival rates, which have not improve in the last 40 years.
That is why Kelvin is keen to highlight and raise awareness of LAPRD over the course of the week. “The idea with the purple to light the stadium up is to gain awareness and to get people talking,” he said.

“The council are doing something amazing in town with the civic centre being lit purple as well, which is the colour associated with World Pancreatic Cancer Day.

“The charity has spent a considerable amount of money this year on two research programmes to support what we’re trying to do.”

The Liver and Pancreatic Research and Development Cancer Charity based from Southampton General Hospital are teaming up with Southampton City Council and Live Nation this November to turn the Civic Centre and Guildhall purple as part of pancreatic cancer awareness month.

Pancreatic cancer is the fifth deadliest cancer in the UK and it affects more than 15,000 patients in the UK every year. This year the LAPR&D have teamed up with Southampton City Council and LiveNation #O2GuildhallS to light up two of the city’s most iconic landmarks, the Civic Centre and Guildhall, purple – the symbolic colour of pancreatic cancer. The famous buildings will turn purple on the evening of Monday 14 November and will stay purple for one week.

All charity supporters and the media are invited to meet charity patron, former Southampton FC captain and goalkeeper, Kelvin Davis, Councillor Dave Shields, Cabinet Member for Health and Sustainability at Southampton City Council, medical experts from the research team and patients for a photo call at 16:30 on Monday 14 November in Guildhall Square.  If you are a press or media outlet and would like to attend please get in touch via:
Email: communications@southampton.gov.uk
Call: 023 8083 2000

Charity volunteers and medical experts from the Southampton University Hospital will also be present in the foyer of Southampton City Council from 12noon-2pm on Monday 14th November – Friday 18th November and will be pleased to speak to anyone about the work they are doing.

LAPR&D strongly believe that raising awareness of pancreatic cancer and its signs and symptoms can save lives. More than 50% of patients have never heard of pancreatic cancer before their own diagnosis and half the population cannot name a single symptom of pancreatic cancer – that’s why raising awareness is so vital!  Unlike many other forms of cancer, detection and cure rates have not improved in the last 40 years.

LAPR&D, via its world leading research programme based at the Southampton University Hospital, is trying to improve the life chances of those who contract this disease. They are currently funding two research programmes with the objective of improving detection and treatment.

Mr. Hilal, one of the charity’s founding members and surgeon at Southampton University hospital said: “This research into liver stem cells allows us a unique opportunity to improve the outcomes and survival for patients with liver disease.  Once we establish our protocols in liver stem cells, we’ll be looking to extend our research into pancreatic stems cells too. This was our first major grant and we are delighted that it has been given to a very talented local team at Southampton University Hospital. 

“The research group acknowledges that it has a long way to go to reach the point of using liver generated from stem cells in the management of patients with liver disease. However in the last two years the group has made good progress and is working hard towards the research aims.

“We are grateful to our many supporters who have so generously given of their time and money to make this research possible and to Southampton City Council for supporting this awareness campaign. If the research is successful it will give a massive boost to the treatment of this form of cancer.”  

Councillor Dave Shields, Cabinet Member for Health and Sustainability at Southampton City Council, said:

“We are proud to support this locally based charity in the fantastic work they do in improving patient care and patient prognosis. Their research into pioneering new treatments and identifying the causes of pancreatic cancer is invaluable in the fight against this terrible disease." 

You can find out more about the signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer at: https://pancreaticcanceraction.org/about-pancreatic-cancer/symptoms/

Donations can be made to the Liver and Pancreatic Research and Development Cancer Charity by following the "Donate" button on this website.

The Liver and Pancreatic Research and Development cancer charity (registered Charity Number 1051543 and affiliated to the Southampton University Hospital Trust) was set up by surgeon Mr. Mo Abu Hilal in 2012 and a number of patients with liver and pancreatic diseases. The charity, based at Southampton Hospital, aims to deliver improvements in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancers of the liver and pancreas.

Further ways to support the charity can be found at the "Get Involved" section of this website.

This year’s was the 4th anniversary charity dinner and auction in aid of the Liver and Pancreatic R&D Cancer Charity held at the Hilton Ageas, Southampton, on 15th October was attended by nearly 400 guests including Kelvin Davis, charity patron and former Saints skipper and goalkeeper, along with Sean Irvine from Hampshire County Cricket Club. The event was hosted by Bobby Davro, who had everyone up on their feet dancing and singing even before the band started!  Bobby made the night very special.
 
The night was organised by supporters of the charity, Tina Hiscox, Carole Harwood, Julia Stuart, Sally Rewcastle and Mandy Bransgrove, who managed to auction off two VIP tickets to the Extreme Sailing World Series yachting event in Cardiff 2017, including Ben Ainsley Racing Team, and a luxury holiday in Portugal amongst many others.
 
The event  raised £35,438.69 from auction bids and sponsorships from the likes of The Barker-Mill Foundation, Moxhams Creative, Screwfix and The Hilton at the Ageas Bowl. 
 
Every single penny raised from the event will go towards the charity’s research and development programme based at Southampton University Hospital and led by surgeon Mr. Mo Abu Hilal.  Mr Hilal, a leading expert in keyhole surgery techniques, believes that patient survival rates can be improved if the disease is diagnosed and treated earlier.  He said after the event “we are still a relatively young charity and we aim to raise awareness of this type of cancer so we can battle it in every way we can. The team are making big strides in stem cell research to help create a new working liver for people, rather than just have them waiting for a donor”.
 
Thanks to everyone for attending and to all our auction prize donators and sponsors – you really have made a difference!  Thanks also to our excellent photographer Dave Vokes who can be contacted at: dave@davevokesphotography.co.uk
 
Further updates on our research programme will be put on our website and in our newsletter.
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Following on from the grant awarded into Stem Cell research, which has just entered its second year, we are delighted to announce approval of a second funding stream to researchers from the University Hospital, Southampton. 
 
Year one funding of £35,839 will allow this research, led by Dr. Pardis Arvinrad, to commence in November 2016 and will last for a period of 32 months subject to continuation following an annual review.
 
This grant is to enable Dr Arvinrad to commence the research with the objective of delivering the following outcomes:
 
1.         identify biomarkers of metastatic[1] pancreatic cancer – most forms of cancer have a blood test or other indicator of the early signs – pancreatic       cancer currently doesn’t
2.         discover new drugs for the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer – at present there are no drugs that only target pancreatic cancer cells whereas there are for liver and breast cancer for example
 
The research will begin with an analysis of human material from 100 Pancreatic Cancer patients to identify potential biomarkers of metastasis with the focus on earlier observations on liver and breast cancers.
 
This a particularly exciting research project that aims to detect early warning signs of the cancer and develop drug treatments that can help patients.
 
Regular updates on the research programme will be provided via our website and Charity Newsletters.


[1] Metastasis is the spread of a cancer or other disease from one organ or part of the body to another without being directly connected with it.