Three cheers for Cowes resident, Mrs Gwen Howarth who has recently donated a very generous £2,100 to the Haematology Department at St. Mary’s Hospital, Newport to help support diagnosis of leukaemic patients.
Mrs Howarth has been supporting the cause for some time now. Since her grandson was diagnosed with leukaemia she began to raise money for the Tenovus Cancer Charity by selling second hand books from outside her house in Cowes. That was back in 1982!
Through books sales, raffles and donations she has raised over a whopping £21,000 which has been presented to the Tenovus Charity both on the Island and on the mainland.
Having reached the grand age of 80 years old, Mrs Howarth felt it was time to pass the baton on to someone younger and three weeks ago made the last contribution from her funds to the Haematology Department to be used to continue the “work against leukaemia”.
Mrs Howarth said: “I would like to thank all those people who have helped raise such significant sums of money by purchasing books at my door.”
Commenting on Mrs Howarth’s efforts, Adrian G Robson, Technical Head of Haematology and Blood Transfusion said: “Research into leukaemia over the last twenty years has dramatically improved the treatment and the success rate in treating patients. It is thanks to people like Mrs Howarth who have enabled a lot of this work to take place. We shall be using her donation to purchase special cell counters used when examining blood films. This will aid us in the diagnosis of leukaemic patients.”
Image: Labwell
