Abcodia seeks collaborations for breast cancer biomarkers

Posted by on Apr 18, 2012 in Blog, PR client | 0 comments I didn’t realise that there are currently no blood-based biomarkers approved for the screening of breast cancer. And yet worldwide, breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer in women (around 23% of all cancers) and around 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. Although mammography is the main screening method for breast cancer, research has shown...
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George Osborne’s charity blunder

Posted by on Apr 17, 2012 in Blog | 3 comments I would like to introduce my successor as chair of trustees at Headway Cambridgeshire, the very affable and able James Berry who has a strong financial background which is particularly essential right now as many charities struggle to survive during the present economic downturn. This has been exacerbated by George Osborne’s ill-conceived plan to hit some charities even harder by his...
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How to be a successful woman writer

Posted by on Apr 15, 2012 in Blog | 1 comment It’s challenging enough being a working mum, juggling a million and one tasks into a packed day. But if this mum also has a burning desire to write a book, how can she manage to fit that into the day too? This was one of the questions frequently asked at Cambridge Wordfest over the weekend, and the answer was always the same – she has to learn NOT to put the kids first. According to a...
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The other Sinclair inventor

Posted by on Apr 12, 2012 in Blog | 3 comments I met up with Iain Sinclair recently after several years and told him about my love of innovations. Quick as a flash, he reached in his packet and brought out his latest creation, a sleek flat pack folding knife called CardSharp. Iain is the younger brother of Sir Clive Sinclair, famed for his C5 electric vehicle, pocket TV, computers and slimline calculator, and they clearly share the same...
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Special educational needs – the way forward

Posted by on Apr 11, 2012 in Blog, PR client | 2 comments I would like to introduce you to one of the exceptional speakers at the SEN conference, Towards a Positive Future. She is Tania Tirraoro, a journalist and author who runs the website Special Needs Jungle and is a mother of two sons with autism. She will talk about how parents-carer forums, such as Family Voice Surrey, of which she is a member, are helping to shape SEN services with the SEN Green...
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The Titanic, heroism and feminism

Posted by on Apr 9, 2012 in Blog | 6 comments I do confess I would loved to have joined passengers on a commemorative journey to mark the 1ooth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, a tragic story that continues to fascinate us all. I listened to a programme about it on Radio 4 at the weekend which included a discussion about the chivalrous saving of women and children first, and then first class passengers. This is not a protocol which...
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Yorkshire’s drought stricken Strid

Posted by on Apr 6, 2012 in Blog | 2 comments Cambridge Rambling Club given a fascinating geology lesson during our recent fabulous walking weekend in Yorkshire by our walk leader David Peel, a retired glaciologist, who highlighted the impact the drought was having at a well known visitors’ spot called The Strid. We looked downonto rocks that in springtime would normally have been covered by  a surging torrent, several feet deep. I...
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The UK’s growing life science industry

Posted by on Apr 4, 2012 in Blog, PR client | 2 comments A group of leading Cambridge biotech entrepreneurs and investors have co-authored a letter in today’s Times with colleagues to highlight the promising future for their industry in the UK. They praise the government for its support and welcome last week’s Budget incentives for investment, including tax breaks for scientific spin-outs and start-ups. But, like biotech entrepreneur Sir...
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How many women will sit in the reformed House of Lords?

Posted by on Mar 28, 2012 in Blog | 4 comments While it is admirable for the House of Lords Constitution Committee to state today that we need more women judges in the UK as fewer than one in four is female, it also needs to put its own House in order to improve its representation of women. The House of Lords Reform Bill was one of the hot topics at the recent round-table discussion on the impact of the government’s legislative...
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Tempting Fate offers Prince Harry advice on finding love

Posted by on Mar 23, 2012 in Blog | 8 comments I met up with a former client of mine for lunch today, the lovely Liza Moore who runs a successful dating agency in the Cambridge area called Tempting Fate. There is one client I am sure she would love to get on her books, one of the most eligible young men in the world, who would instantly be swamped with offers – our own Prince Harry. He spoke recently about his difficulty in finding a...
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Can a Cambridge start-up win Orange’s £200,000 prize for being different?

Posted by on Mar 23, 2012 in Blog, Sponsored Post | 1 comment Sponsored Post Cambridge’s innovative start-ups are among the best in the world and recognised as a special “phenomenon”.  Now they have the chance to  win up to £200,000 worth of professional services to take their business one step further in a national competition launched by Orange. Their Win Your Business competition is keen to support today’s bright entrepreneurs...
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Declining role of women in public decision making

Posted by on Mar 22, 2012 in Blog | 1 comment I am joining a round table discussion today in London about the lack of involvement from women in legislative decision making on policies that affect our every day lives. It follows research conducted by the Centre for Women and Democracy who received funding from the Feminist Review Trust to examine the representation of women on public decision making or scrutiny bodies. The CFWD looked at...
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Abcodia nominated for awards

Posted by on Mar 19, 2012 in Blog, PR client | 2 comments I’m thrilled to be joining Abcodia’s CEO Julie Barnes (pic) and COO Chris Hodkinson at the Business Weekly annual awards dinner at Queen’s College, Cambridge tomorrow evening as the newly formed molecular diagnostics company has been shortlisted for two awards. I’ve worked with Abcodia since its launch a year ago and am delighted that they have achieved this kind of...
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EU medicinal herbal remedy laws need urgent review

Posted by on Mar 14, 2012 in Blog, PR client | 4 comments The medicinal herbal remedy industry is at risk in Europe following the introduction of new EU laws a year ago, according to Greer Deal, Director of Global Regulatory Services. She tells me that the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive is being flouted by some companies to avoid paying exhorbitant fees, a system which favours larger companies, while smaller businesses are struggling to...
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Women’s winning boardroom formula

Posted by on Mar 13, 2012 in Blog | 3 comments It was very pleasing to learn today that the number of women on FTSE 100 boards  looks likely to exceed its target, avoiding the need for quotas. “Women are joining FTSE 100 boards at such a fast rate that they are likely to exceed the target of 25 per cent female directors by 2015,” an official report said today, a year after Lord Davies, the former trade minister, set the target in...
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Sir Christopher Evans on entrepreneurs, life science and ‘knob heads’

Posted by on Mar 7, 2012 in Blog, PR client | 0 comments The British life science industry is thwarted by lack of investment with a slow regulatory process which is impeding its development, said Sir Christopher Evans, the biotech king who is regarded as one of Europe’s leading medical science entrepreneurs, if not the world, and created the now famous Cambridge cluster of biomedical companies. As someone who has established 45 successful science...
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Victoria Gillick and Wisbech migrants

Posted by on Mar 5, 2012 in Blog | 4 comments Victoria Gillick of Wisbech has sent me a copy of a letter she has submitted to the Wisbech Standard for publication following my two blog posts about migrants in Wisbech, which can be viewed here, and here. I really enjoyed her accompanying letter which said: “I’m really grateful to you for what you have done for the town … bless your sweet cotton socks.” She also kindly...
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Our intimidating appeal system for special educational needs

Posted by on Mar 5, 2012 in Blog, PR client | 0 comments I was shocked to discover the painful process that some families have to endure when appealing against their local education authority special educational needs provision for their vulnerable child. According to Janet O’Keefe, a speech and language therapist who attends many tribunals as an expert witness, special educational needs and disability tribunals are organised by the Ministry of...
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Chris Curry on social media and networking

Posted by on Feb 28, 2012 in Blog | 7 comments If you have asked technology innovator Chris Curry to join you on LinkedIn or Facebook and not heard back, you are not alone, and the reason is because he is not signed up to either. These are his thoughts about social media and networking: What do you think of social media? I can’t stand it. Obviously it’s a huge drug and a habit for a lot of people, but I’m not a user. I keep refusing...
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The Daily Mail and our sepsis case study

Posted by on Feb 28, 2012 in Blog | 2 comments Thank you to the Daily Mail for today giving a whole page to a story about sepsis which I pitched to them at the end of last year while campaigning with UK Sepsis. It describes how a young father of four died after his eczema became infected a year ago. The tragic story is highlighted in the paper’s Good Health supplement under the heading, “Within a day of his eczema being infected,...
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Cambridge to trial latest telecare technology

Posted by on Feb 27, 2012 in Blog | 1 comment This is my third report following my interview with Chris Curry and describes an innovative telecare scheme which his company, Critical Data Ltd, will soon be launching  – Care with Canary: Cambridge is to trial the very latest sensory telecare technology which will enable our elderly population to live independently at home by detecting any change in their regular routine which might...
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Raspberry Pi will launch this week

Posted by on Feb 26, 2012 in Blog | 2 comments Britain could be heading for a new generation of young creative computer progammers – thanks to the launch of Raspberry Pi, a mini computer board which is hoped will help revitalise computer science in schools. The very same day that I met Chris Curry, joint founder of Acorn Computers, when he sang the praises of Raspberry Pi, which has drawn inspiration from his BBC Micro, I then...
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Chris Curry on suing IBM, that Micro Men drama and the Brighton bombing

Posted by on Feb 25, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments This is the second in a series of anecdotal stories told to me by Chris Curry, and I find them absolutely riveting. Chris and the Acorn days are at the very heart of the Cambridge Phenomenon, a term first coined by Peta Levi in a Financial Times article in November 1980, to describe the incredible explosion of technology, life sciences and service companies that has occurred in the city since...
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How Olivetti stitched up Acorn

Posted by on Feb 24, 2012 in Blog | 3 comments I bumped into Chris Curry last week, a Cambridge legend and visionary innovator who, along with Hermann Hauser, founded Acorn Computers in 1978, an era which still holds a fascination for many.  Acorn dominated the Cambridge technology scene in the 1980s and 90s, and was estimated to make half of the computers used in schools. With the imminent launch of a new book highlighting the 50 year...
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The death of a heroine, Marie Colvin

Posted by on Feb 23, 2012 in Blog | 4 comments I was stunned to learn of the death of Marie Colvin, whose war reports I avidly read in awe, always thinking about the risks she took to tell us about the terrible atrocities she witnessed in war zones. Fearless journalists, men and women alike, pay the ultimate price to bring us the truth about despotic regimes; their lives far removed from their phone hacking counterparts whose reputation...
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