Big hearted fundraisers at a city oil company today (February 14) gave Alzheimer’s disease researchers a much appreciated funding boost.
Employees of ConocoPhillips (U.K.) Limited handed over a cheque for £3,500 this lunchtime to scientists at the University of Aberdeen.
The money was raised via a number of ways which included book and cake sales, the proceeds of the company's Christmas Ball Raffle and donations.
Funds were gathered via the People Spirit Committee within ConocoPhillips (U.K.) Limited which aims to make the company a better place to work and also helps the local community.
Karen Patience, Treasurer of the People Spirit Committee, said: "One of the aims of People Spirit is to assist organisations in the local community, either by financial donations or volunteering.
"Each year we ask employees to nominate organisations they would like to see benefit from fundraising throughout the year.
"One of the three selected for 2007 was Alzheimer's research at the University of Aberdeen which we believe is a very deserving recipient."
Professor Lawrence Whalley, Professor of Mental Health at the University, leads a number of pioneering research studies into dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
He said: "We are absolutely delighted to receive this donation from the staff of ConocoPhillips (U.K.) Limited.
"The employees who raised this money can rest assured that their donation will go some way to helping further the many leading research projects we are doing here.
"One of our early detection of dementia studies has involved giving brain scans to almost 250 people from the North-east who were all born in 1936.
"Thanks to this latest donation we can now go back and repeat some of these scans which we hope will give us new insights into a condition that blights so many families."