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Photos: (top) participants involved in a cooking session at The Comfrey Project (credit: The Comfrey Project) and (left) Poppy Brown receives her ‘Rising Star’ award at the North East Charity Awards (credit: North East Charity Awards).
A donor who set up a fund at the Community Foundation with royalties from a groundbreaking anticancer drug, is celebrating after the fund reached £250,000 in grants made. The Curtin PARP Fund was established in 2019 with a generous gift of nearly £865,000 by Professor Nicola Curtin and has reached this significant milestone in only six years.
‘PARP’ stands for Passionate About Realising your Potential but also harks back to the vital part of the cancer drug – Rubraca® – that made the fund possible. PARP (poly-ADP ribose polymerase) is a protein which helps damaged cells repair themselves. The drug stops PARP from doing its repair work in cancer cells and the cells die.
Elaine Holdsworth, Senior Philanthropy Advisor at the Community Foundation said:
“We were thrilled by the generosity of the gift and delighted that we could help support Nicola’s giving. Reaching this milestone gives us an opportunity to reflect on the huge impact the fund has made in a relatively short period of time.
“The Curtin PARP Fund supports projects and individuals whose circumstances have limited their chances to realise their potential. The grants provided can help people undertake education or training and remove barriers to employment, giving people access to an opportunity that may otherwise have been out of reach. To date, 94 grants have been made to organisations and individuals across the region.”
For Professor Curtin, it’s not lost on her that even a modest sum can make a big difference:
“I am always so impressed with the work of the charities the Curtin PARP Fund has been able to support, especially dedication and energy of the people who work there and how well they make the grant money stretch.
“Coming from a scientific background, where everything is so expensive I’m amazed at what they manage to do with just a few thousand pounds. It can buy someone a laptop, enabling them to gain qualifications for work, or provide English language classes that can make all the difference to a refugee’s ability to have a fulfilling life here.”
One such grant recipient was Poppy Brown, a young volunteer at Chopwell Regeneration CIO. She was unable to attend work and undertake apprenticeship training because of a bus strike, meaning she was relying on expensive taxis for the 24-mile return journey from home. A grant of £438 from the Curtin PARP Fund covered the taxi costs and allowed Poppy to continue her apprenticeship without having to shoulder the financial burden for something that was beyond her control.
Poppy excelled in her work at Chopwell Regeneration CIO, quickly becoming a trusted and reliable member of the team who understood the needs of the wider community. Through her dedication and resourcefulness, she was later recognised at the North East Charity Awards 2024 by winning the ‘Rising Star’ award.
Sarah Cotton, Senior Learning & Programmes Manager at Chopwell Regeneration CIO said:
“The grant from the Curtin PARP Fund enabled Poppy to pursue her apprenticeship without being impeded by money. During her apprenticeship she has learned a range of new skills and says she now feels more confident in herself and her abilities. The award is testament to all her hard work.”
A local charity to benefit from a grant from the Curtin PARP Fund was The Comfrey Project. They received £7,500 in 2023 from two funds at the Community Foundation, half of which came from Curtin PARP. The grant covered the salary costs for a Horticulture and Garden Lead to deliver nature and wellbeing sessions and accredited training to refugee and asylum seekers in Gateshead.
They developed and delivered three weekly gardening sessions, which allowed participants to experience gardening activities, learn new skills and gain confidence to put them into action. By relating the activities to food growing, preparation and wastage, participants also learned skills that related to their everyday lives.
Eleni Venaki, Director at the Comfrey Project said:
“We are very grateful for the funding we received from the Curtin PARP Fund. We had 192 participants throughout 2023/24 who took part in our training or attended a course. Aside from the practical skills they can use in the short term there are also longer-term benefits of taking part.
“One of our Gardening Volunteers has gone on to look for professional support to set up a gardening maintenance business. Another volunteer who participated in the Kitchen Group has been paid to deliver one of the standalone mini courses for us, and four sessions of the Herb & Salad project to a group of migrant women.”
The Curtin PARP Fund is a rolling fund that is open for applications all year round, meaning that it will continue to support local charities, voluntary organisations and individuals when the need arises.
Reflecting on the success of the fund, Professor Curtin added:
“I was lucky in that the research I did resulted in an anticancer drug that turned out to be effective and a commercial success meaning that I got a huge amount of money in royalties.
“I am so glad that I gave it all to the Community Foundation for the Curtin PARP fund. I am so grateful to them for the amazing help and guidance they have given me. It was the best thing I could have done. What’s more, it will be a lasting legacy after I have died, which makes me very happy.”