Where Your Money Has Gone

The Year 2009-2010

The year 2010 has been a very exciting year for The Lily Foundation. We are continuing to grow despite very difficult financial circumstances, we continue to provide support for families affected by Mitochondrial Disease and we are a charity which enables families to raise money for the search for a cure of Mitochondrial Disease. It has also been a very exciting year in terms of research.

The Gene Testing Programme

Testing of the mitochondrial genes is currently a very long and expensive process. With potentially hundreds and maybe thousands of genes to test, each gene takes between 8-12 weeks to be tested and costs hundreds of pounds.The gene testing programme will enable doctors to test ALL the known mitochondrial genes in one laboratory within one month, for up to eight patients at a time for the cost of £8000.  Once it is up and running the programme will have the potential to test hundreds of patients in one run at no extra cost.

This is how it works:

It is the first of its kind world wide. Samples will come from all over the world to use the technology. Doctors are currently running tests on the technology and hope to be testing the mitochondrial genes by the end of 2010.

The Lily Foundation were very proud to be able to hand over a further cheque of £70,000 at our 3rd Annual Ball in March 2010 to Dr Mike Champion,Pediatric Metabolic Consultant at the Evelina Children's Hospital.

We have donated £173,000 to date.

The Year 2008 - 2009

The Lily Foundation is proud to announce that it has now raised £100,000 for Guy's and St Thomas' hospital to help the battle against Mitochondrial Disease. Lily's mum and dad Liz and Dave handed over a cheque for £43,000 to Dr Mike Champion, Consultant in Pediatric Metabolic Medicine at the Evelina Children's Hospital, Guys and St Thomas' Hospital at the 2nd Annual Lily Foundation Ball  on March 7th at the Riverbank Park Plaza just a few hundred yards from where Lily received such kind care at the Evelina Unit.

November 2008

This is in addition to the £57,000 handed over in November 2008. Lily's parents Liz and Dave and Lily's uncle Jonathan Pearce presented Dr Mike Champion a cheque at the Evelina Childrens' Hospital.

Alongside this a cheque for £3000 was presented to Sue Bennett from The Ronald MacDonald Trust, which will sponsor a family room for a year, paying for the costs of the up keep.

We could not have managed this without your help. The money raised has already resulted in the creation of the first hi-tech microchip to be used in a new gene testing unit at Guys and St Thomas'. This will speed up the detection of the defective mitochondrial gene and hopefully, one day, lead to the cure of the Disease

Once again, thanks so much for your help