The Sunflower Jam is excited to announce that The Jon Lord Fellowship will start on April 1st 2015.
After months of planning and organisation, the Sunflower Jam is proud to announce that the Jon Lord Fellowship will kick off at the beginning of next month. The charity has worked tirelessly to ensure the funding and resources are in place for this amazing research project. After a lengthy interview process, Peyda Korhan PhD has been selected as the research fellow.
The research will be overseen by Professor of Cancer Biology, Mustafa Djamgoz’s team and co-supervised by the Alliance of Natural Health International’s Robert Verkerk, PhD. For more information about the aims of the research fellowship, please see here.
Jacky Paice, founder and director of The Sunflower Jam charity, and sister-in-law of Jon Lord said, “It’s only fitting that the inaugural fellowship in Jon’s name should be dedicated to learning more about the cancer that took his life. It’s equally fitting that the research be done at Imperial College, just a stone’s throw from the Albert Hall that remained dear to Jon’s heart since Deep Purple’s historic Concerto for Group and Orchestra in 1969 with the Royal Philharmonic. We’re also thrilled that the project will be guided by Prof Djamgoz and Dr Rob Verkerk, both of whom we know are deeply committed to finding new insights to both the treatment and prevention of cancer using an integrated approach.”
Speaking of the project, co-supervisor, Robert Verkerk PhD said, “Peyda has her work cut out. We’re excited that the research combines a review of all relevant published science on the integrated management and prevention of pancreatic cancer, but also a clinical pilot study that includes evaluating aspects of potential epigenetic susceptibility or resilience. We’re all going into this eyes wide open – and all we can say at this point is that in a year’s time we’ll be wiser about this complex and difficult to treat cancer than we are now.”
The end goal is to create a review paper that amasses all the available knowledge on integrated approach to the management of pancreatic cancer, and to gain more understanding of how genetics, diet and lifestyle might play a part in either preventing pancreatic cancer or improving survival rates.
Jon’s wife Vicky and the Lord and Paice families hope that, “Through the fellowship, we are hopeful that scientific evidence supporting a new paradigm of integrated health care for people will emerge, especially for those with pancreatic cancer. This would be a huge step towards achieving what Jon truly wanted.”