COCKTAIL DE LA RENTRÉE

Professor Colin McGuckinDoctor Patrick MehlenThis year’s cocktail combined Lyon’s excellence in the world of Cancer research, the fine work of one of our members, CTI Biotech, and the venue of one of our founder members offices, PwC at the Grand Hôtel Dieu.
As a team, we deliberately wanted to place the focus on the positive effects of Cancer research in the face of such a widespread, awful disease. Our theme, “Cancer, New hope for the future”, brought together 4 speakers, all with different insights on the world of Cancer research.

Unfortunately, at the last minute Georges Képénékian, deputy mayor of Lyon, wasn’t available, but our 3 original speakers more than made up for the disappointment. Professor Colin McGuckin spoke from his perspective as Chairman of CTI biotech, putting the accent on personalized treatment,  managing to combine great insight and humour, no mean feat in such a sensitive subject area. His eternal optimism is extremely inspiring.
Dr. Patrick Mehlen, who leads a cancer research team and is currently director of Fondation Synergie Lyon Cancer, spoke of the great advances that have been made in this field; we tend to forget, but Patrick made the point that our hopes for the future stem from Cancer research; it`s worth remembering that chances of survival have increased 6-fold for certain cancers and progress continues to be made. Finally, and most movingly, Shelley Gore, spoke from the patient’s perspective. Shelley spoke beautifully, describing her treatment after being diagnosed with two different cancers simultaneously. Living in Lyon and being so well looked after made Shelley’s story extremely inspiring and we are delighted that she, along with James, her husband, have managed to cope so positively. Words don’t do her presentation justice, but by the end emotion was tangible in the packed audience of the Salle des Crochets!

We followed these wonderful presentations with a cocktail, a tombola (thanks to Zoë and James) and sincere thanks to TwoHats for providing prizes.
Thanks also go to Michel Bouzigues and Sandrine Amador at PwC for all their help and support in opening up their offices and managing the slight technical difficulties!!
Finally, thanks to members and guests for being so generous with their donations: all monies raised go to Cancer research via Synergie Cancer Lyon. 800€ was raised by FIBA so thank you all for your support.