|  |  |  | | | | Civic celebration of Leukaemia Research’s achievements in Scotland | | | | |
| |  Alastair Campbell at Glasgow City Chambers
Release Date: 19 November 2008
Glasgow City Chambers held a Civic Reception on Tuesday 18 November at 7pm to celebrate the achievements of Leukaemia Research in Scotland during 2008. The charity has £8.8 million invested in pioneering research in the country.
The evening, hosted by former Downing Street communications director Alastair Campbell and attended by the Lord Provost and leading Scottish research scientists and top businessmen and local fundraisers, highlighted the real impact Scotland is having on the lives of people with blood cancers.
This year the Minimal Residual Disease test (MRD), pioneered by Brenda Gibson at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow and funded by Leukaemia Research, has been taken up by NHS throughout the UK as standard treatment for children with leukaemia.
The MRD test has been described as the most important advance in the treatment of children with leukaemia in the last 20 years. This test allows doctors to provide children with just the right amount of chemotherapy, which minimises toxicity of treatment while still achieving cure.
Dr Brenda Gibson says: "The MRD test is making an enormous difference and has led to better treatment for every child. Fifty years ago, children with leukaemia faced almost certain death. Today 90 percent of children are going to survive."
In 2008, research centres in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen funded by Leukaemia Research have been working on projects, which offer real hope to patients for improved diagnosis and better treatments for these devastating cancers not only in Scotland but throughout the UK and worldwide.
This year the charity celebrated the opening of the £3million Paul O’Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre at Gartnavel Hospital, which is enabling our scientists to carry out leading research to finding cures for blood cancers
 Glasgow Branch members with Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell, fundraising director for Leukaemia Research says: "The contribution Scotland has made in 2008 to improving the outlook for all patients with blood cancers is considerable. A big thank you to everyone who is helping Leukaemia Research beat this terrible disease."
The charity receives no government funding and relies on the work of volunteers such as those at the Glasgow Branch who work tirelessly to fundraise so that others may be spared the pain of losing a loved one to blood cancer.
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