Sam touched the lives of all who knew him. His overriding thought throughout his long illness was to remain positive and protect all those around him. He fought malignant melanoma for 7 years; with dignity, great courage and a total lack of self-pity. Undergoing over twenty operations to remove tumours, Sam endured chemotherapy, radiotherapy, gamma knife brain radiotherapy and several cutting-edge experimental melanoma drugs.
Brave and selfless to the end, Sam was able miraculously to marry the love of his life Ali. They were able to have 7 weeks of married life together and in that time shared more love than most couples experience in a lifetime. They were indeed soulmates.
At the forefront of the fight against malignant melanoma was Sam's oncologist for the entire 7 years, Professor Martin Gore, former Medical Director of the the Royal Marsden Hospital, who sadly died in 2019. Under Professor Gore's guidance, Sam's wife and family decided to establish a Foundation in Sam's name to help fight this terrible disease. Professor Gore's leadership has now been passed to Professor James Larkin.
The Sam Keen Foundation goes from strength to strength. Our Research Fellows, under the leadership of the Principal Fellow, Andrew Furness, have now completed their work and published the results. Their work on immunology and the individual targeting of cancer cells received wide acclaim and their findings are now being used in mainstream cancer treatment.
Andrew is continuing his research and the Foundation has committed to continue funding his ground-breaking work. Your donations will be used to help give him the resources he needs.
Sam’s Foundation
Shortly after Sam died, his family and friends set themselves the target of raising £25,000 to support The Royal Marsden Hospital’s fight against skin cancer. The remarkable explosion of donations that followed has seen over £500,000 raised to date.
This money was used to sponsor two Research Fellows based at the Marsden, who were uniquely placed to be able to find a breakthrough. Our Research Fellows, under the leadership of the Principal Fellow, Andrew Furness, have now completed their work and published the results. Their work on immunology and the individual targeting of cancer cells received wide acclaim and their findings are now being used in mainstream cancer treatment.
Andrew is continuing his research and the Foundation has committed to continue funding his ground-breaking work. Your donations will be used to help give him the resources he needs.
Malignant Melanoma
Malignant melanoma is a skin cancer
Malignant melanoma is a skin cancer that starts in moles. 12,000 new cases are diagnosed in the UK annually with 2,000 people dying from the disease.
The incidence of the melanoma is doubling every decade and this rate of increase is faster than for any other cancer.
Melanoma is associated with older age groups however, it also affects young people. Every day 4 people under the age of 40 are diagnosed with melanoma and weekly, 2 will die.
The main preventable cause of melanoma is exposure to sunlight in particular, episodes of sunburn during childhood. Public education, particularly in relation to protecting children from episodes from sudden bursts of high intensity sunlight leading to sunburn, is crucial.
Teaching the public to recognised the early signs of melanoma is an important part of any attempt to reduce melanoma deaths because patients who have melanoma diagnosed early are almost always cured by simple excision of the lesion.
A simple aid to teaching people what to look for is the ABCDE system. Moles that have any of the ABCDE features should be removed:
We welcome all donations. There are two ways to donate: 1) please click on the link below or 2) please send a cheque made out to 'The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity' and send it to:
The Major Giving Department,
The Royal Marsden Hospital,
203 Fulham Rd,
Chelsea, London SW3 6JJ
Please mark on the reverse side of the cheque:
'For The Sam Keen Foundation'.
Thank you.
