Cancer researchers at Queen's have benefitted from the sale of Mother's Day cards thanks to funding of £15,000 from Hallmark’s Cards for a Cure(TM) to support the Breast Cancer Campaign.

The campaign, which has seen £1 million being donated to research projects, has now pledged £15,000 to Queen's for a project led by Dr Jennifer Quinn and her PhD Student, Elisabeth Lamers, from the University’s Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology.

The project is investigating why some people are resistant to chemotherapy for breast cancer treatment, with a hope of one day being able to tailor treatment to the patients that it will definitely benefit.

Dr Quinn said: "This is a huge sum of money and we are extremely grateful to Hallmark for continuing to support Breast Cancer Campaign, which in turn benefits the important work that we do.

"With previous Breast Cancer Campaign funding, we discovered that people who have a working copy of the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 do not respond well to some chemotherapy drugs. This new research is therefore hoping to find out why this happens so that patients could be tested for this gene prior to receiving chemotherapy, to ensure only people who are likely to respond to treatment actually receive it."

Tamsyn Johnston-Hughes from Hallmark Cards, said: "Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in the UK and affects many thousands of women and a number of men every year, as well as impacting on the lives of friends and family.

"It is for this reason that the research being carried out by Queen's is significant as it may one day help to find a cure for people with breast cancer worldwide. Our Cards for a Cure(TM) campaign donation directly benefits this on-the-ground research and is vital to ensuring that it can continue."

Media inquiries please contact: Donna McCullough, Press Officer 028 9097 5391,  07980 013 362  d.mccullough@qub.ac.uk