Business News


Scheme to help the homeless


Construction and civil engineering firms are being invited to join a new training and development scheme, developed and organised by homelessness charity SIFA Fireside. The ‘Building Employability’


scheme aims to bolster opportunities for those in the West Midlands who have previously been homeless or faced exploitation. ‘I pledge’ is the first phase


of the programme targeting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from across the region. Those which sign up pledge


support for socially responsible approaches to recruitment which helps provide opportunities for people who have experienced homelessness.


‘It's time for us, and the businesses of Birmingham to come together’


Highway Traffic Management has been the first to pledge their support. Managing director of


Highway Traffic Management and SIFA Fireside patron Greg Baldwin said: “We are very excited to have been involved in the planning and now the launch of Building Employability with SIFA Fireside. They have supported us hugely in tackling hidden homelessness within our workforce and it's time for us, and the businesses of Birmingham to come together and pledge in support of their objectives and the aims of this movement.” SIFA Fireside’s fundraising


and corporate partnerships manager, Melissa Roche, said: “Pledging your support to Building Employability is the first step to extending our reach within the thriving building and construction industry in Birmingham. “Building Employability is a


long-term approach that we want to develop with partners that stimulates real change and action.”


If you’d like to find out more and pledge interest, visit www.sifafireside.co.uk/pages /301-building-employability


28 CHAMBERLINK March 2021


Professor backs ‘game- changing’ blood cancer trials


An Oxford University professor and member of the Government’s vaccine taskforce is backing the ‘game- changing’ national Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP) - a blood cancer clinical trials network funded by Cure Leukaemia. Despite the impact of Covid-19 on the delivery


of blood cancer clinical trials across the UK, and the £1.5m fundraising shortfall Cure Leukaemia faced in 2020 due to the pandemic, TAP has enabled a new study named PACE, examining the effects of virus and other infections on patients with blood cancer, to be set-up in less than a month. PACE has now recruited 200 patients from 30 hospitals. Work has also continued on new trials during the pandemic, meaning a further five TAP trials are due to open in the next year.


‘We have seen the urgent importance of clinical trials to combat the Covid-19 virus’


Professor Sir John Bell (pictured), regius professor of medicine at Oxford, says the TAP network is playing a transformative role. He said: “Cure Leukaemia’s funding of the UK Trials


Acceleration Programme (TAP) is a game-changer and increases the access for blood cancer patients to potentially transformative new therapies through the delivery of practice informing clinical trials which not only saves lives but also increases investment into this


country’s economy. We have seen the urgent importance of clinical trials to combat the Covid-19 virus and we must not lose sight of the transformative role networks like TAP play in connecting blood cancer patients in the UK with critically important clinical trials.”


One of these clinical trials, VICTOR, is a clinical trial for blood cancer patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). VICTOR, which is funded by Cancer


Research UK, is due to open at more than 40 UK-based sites, including the 12 TAP


sites funded by Cure Leukaemia. It will be co-ordinated by the TAP Hub which also receives funding from Cure


Leukaemia and is based at the Centre for Clinical


Haematology in Birmingham. AML affects more than 3,000 people in the UK every


year and VICTOR will examine the efficacy of the treatment venetoclax as an alternative to the intensive chemotherapy currently available to patients under standard care. The study will investigate if venetoclax is able to


target and kill leukaemia cells more selectively. Cure Leukaemia chief executive James McLaughlin


said: “Despite the ongoing challenges we are facing due to Covid-19, we are keen to highlight on World Cancer Day that pioneering treatments are still being made available to blood cancer patients across the UK. “It is vital that we continue to raise the funds


required to sustain this network and give clinicians across the UK the opportunity to trial new and potentially practice informing clinical trials.”


Hospice secures bank grant


Acorns Children’s Hospice has received a £100,000 grant from Barclay’s Covid-19 Community Aid package. The grant will help the charity


carry out its vital work caring for hundreds of families impacted by Covid-19. The charity is one of just 100 across the UK to receive a cash injection via the nationwide scheme, designed to support organisations working in communities hardest hit by the pandemic. The grant will be put towards


Acorn’s ongoing work providing emotional and practical care and support for hundreds of families across the West Midlands, work which has become ever-more needed for those impacted by the global health crisis. Emma Aspinall, director of Care at


Acorns, said: “We are hugely grateful to Barclays for this significant grant towards our work. Acorns supports hundreds of families every year who are caring for children with complex conditions. “The pandemic has greatly


intensified the challenges that many families already face - increased stress and anxiety,


Funding boost: Two Acorns nurses who have provided care to patients during the health crisis


increased isolation and a strain on mental wellbeing. The grant will make a huge difference and help ensure Acorns can continue providing the support that families need, whenever they need it.” Acorns Family Services Team,


based across its three hospices at Walsall, Birmingham and Worcester, provides specially tailored care and support for parents, grandparents and siblings.


During the pandemic, the team


has been adapting its vital services for families, providing virtual support-group sessions and helping to coordinate deliveries of food and essentials to isolating families. Over the past year Acorns has


cared for more than 800 children and 1,000 families, including those who are bereaved. It costs the charity around £10m to provide its services.


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