Charity update

UNITED GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND
	Charity update
* Grant to help bombing victims	* Pioneering research
The Grand Charity swung into action after the four bomb explosions in London on 7th July. The following week, an emergency grant of £50,000 was approved to assist the victims, after the Mayor of London had established the London Bombings Relief Charitable Fund, in association with the British Red Cross to raise money for the victims and their families. The Grand Charity’s donation was placed in the care of trustees appointed by the Greater London Authority. It was aimed at relieving dis-ability or physical and mental sickness caused by the attacks and to help with financial needs.	Nearly half of the £2.68m grants by the Grand Charity last year is helping to fund medical research projects. The largest of these is a £1m grant to the Institute of Cancer Research, to help scientists combat testicular and prostate cancers. The money is being paid in ten annual instal-ments of £100,000 to fund The Grand Charity of Freemasons’ Chair of Molecular Biology. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer to affect men in the UK. Each year 27,000 cases are diagnosed, and the disease kills 10,000 a year. In June 2004, scientists at the ICR announced a major advance in understanding the genetic basis of prostate cancer. The ground-breaking discov-ery of the overactive E2F3 gene in prostate tumours will allow doctors for the first time to predict how aggressive the cancer will be.
* Niger Famine Relief	£50k hospice donation
The Grand Charity made an emergency grant of £10,000 to Save the Children to support the charity’s work in Niger. A massive humanitarian crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa resulted from a poor harvest caused by drought conditions and the worst locust infestation in 20 years. In Niger, the world’s second poorest country, the United Nations estimated around 2.5 million people had been hit, including 800,000 children. Save the Children launched an emergency response to provide food, water and healthcare for about 43,000 children under five years old in the Maradi and Zinder regions of Niger. The Grand Charity’s £10,000 donation was intended to provide food for 250 severely malnourished children for 30 days, the average time spent in the feeding programme, and water-purification tablets for 10,000 children.	Fund-raising methods by the members of Newham Lodge No.8627 include collecting at Underground stations, and the lodge’s efforts over the last three years have raised a total of £53,000 for the Richard House Hospice as well as donations to masonic charities. WBro Keith Isaacs, Newham’s secretary, comments, “The moneys have been raised in various ways, from social events at which auctions are held, to raffles, to collections on the Underground. “We are amazed at the response we have from the Underground collections in particular. The Richard House Trust really does strike a chord with the public.”
	Hanwell Lodge No.4676 has recently distributed £7500 to local charities. The charities’ representatives visited the West London Masonic Centre to receive their cheques prior to a recent lodge meeting. Also attending the event was the MP for Ealing North, Steve Pound, who although not a Mason, is a local resident and on the board of some of the charities.
There are a growing number of petitioners, both Freemasons and their dependants, of which there are currently nearly 250 London petitioners resident in masonic homes, for whom the cost in real terms alone to the RMBI is around £900,000 per annum. This appeal has the joint support of all the Masonic Charity Presidents. London, in true masonic spirit, picked up the challenge and, by a concerted effort from lodges and chapters, a sum of just over £500,000 has been raised to date and the total is still rising! A very commendable achievement from everyone, and it is hoped that by the next AGM this figure will have risen to at least £750,000. Due to the general longevity of life nowadays, the demands on the RMBI for that especial security, comfort and support required to maintain the dignity of many in their later years of life will continue to grow.	The South Bucks Hospice, a charity which helps those with life-threatening illnesses and has one of the largest Lymphoedema clinics in the south of England, has received a donation from the Master’s List of Gallery Lodge No.1928, a lodge in London’s Strathearn Group. The £500 donation was made at the discretion of the outgoing WM, WBro John Farrar 6 PPSGD (Sussex).
	Well done, London, for your RMBI support says the Met Grand Charity Steward "At our last annual general meeting, the Metropolitan Grand Master, RWBro Lord Millett, informed us that the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution had asked if London Freemasons may consider making a special effort of support for the charity."