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18
January 2016
Abingdon
Old Abingdonians
OAs in Charity
Countless OAs have done amazing things for
charity. Here are profiles of two of the several
OAs who have made charity their careers.
Anthony Leathem
(OA 1962)
Anthony had great encouragement at
Abingdon to pursue science, being
allowed the Biology Lab key at weekends
and visits to Oxford labs. He qualified
in Medicine and trained as a pathologist
specializing in cancer.
Seeing high rates of breast cancer deaths
in younger women frustrated Anthony. In
1988 he and his wife Patricia (a breast
cancer nurse) started the Breast Cancer
Campaign for research into cancer, which
developed funding for short-term projects.
In 1993 they started Against Breast
Cancer, another charity, to fund ambitious
long-term programmes. The charity
now funds a biochemistry and immunity
programme at Oxford University under Dr.
Max Crispin.
Anthony has retired from University
College London, but continues an active
involvement with his home lab. He is keen to
encourage young scientists to understand
the joys and frustrations of testing new ideas.
Mathew Iredale
(OA 1985)
Prospect researcher:
identifying and researching
wealthy people for charities.
Charities approach the wealthy for
major gifts (£10,000 - £10 million or
more), and prospect research ensures
they approach the right people. It
requires a mixture of head (estimating
wealth) and heart (understanding
philanthropic motivation). It is not
simply a matter of reading the Sunday
Times Rich List; prospect research
requires understanding company
finances, interrogating databases,
connecting disparate sources of
information and an attention to detail
to spot the needle in a haystack of
mundane information.
Mathew currently works for Shelter,
the homelessness charity. His career
has included working for such major
charities as Great Ormond Street
Hospital Children’s Charity (for their
£140m redevelopment appeal),
Cancer Research UK, the Stroke
Association, and the Alzheimer’s
Society. He has published a book
on prospect research entitled
‘Prospecting for Benefactors’.
Anthony Leathem’s home laboratory!
Part of the Against Breast Cancer
fundraising team