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October 2019

The annual application deadline for our main grant program in 2020 will be 30 November 2019 for awards to be made in May 2020.
Further details and application forms are on our website.

Investigating the cell’s defences when under viral attack

Flaviviruses are viruses commonly transmitted by mosquitos and up to 40% of the world’s population is at risk of these serious infections, including Zika and Dengue.

Dr Ben Ravenhill, an Internal Medicine Trainee and Academic Clinical Fellow at Addenbrooke’s was recently awarded funds by the Evelyn Trust to investigate how cells defend themselves when under attack from a flavivirus. When a cell detects invasion by a virus, it fights against the invader by making antiviral proteins. Ben’s plan was to look at the changing levels of proteins in cells after infection, aiming to identify new candidate antiviral proteins that are made by the cell and then degraded by the virus.

Helping to reduce anxiety in young patients

For children, the treatment for long term conditions can be almost as difficult as the condition itself. This is true of rheumatic conditions, where children may need unpleasant and distressing treatment over several years of outpatient appointments. The experience of treatment can cause anxiety, especially before and during appointments. Art therapy has been used by some services around the country to help children cope and this year the Evelyn Trust has funded Teapot Trust to provide an art therapist to the paediatric rheumatology clinic at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. It’s early days, but the first reports show important impacts on the mood and behaviour of children – and families have also seen the benefits.

Investigating improvements to immunotherapy

In 2017, we reported on the establishment of the new Patrick Sissons Evelyn Trust Research Fellowship in Infection and Immunity. Here we talk to Iosifina Foskolou - the first incumbent - about the goals for her three-year research fellowship.

Enticed from the University of Oxford’s Department of Oncology to take up the fellowship, Iosifina Foskolou is an exceptional researcher into immunotherapy for blood cancers, including leukaemia and lymphoma. Iosifina’s field of study is T-cells, the white blood cells that play a central role in our immune response.

Building resilience in children and families

To meet a growing need in mental health services for children and families, three local agencies came together to launch the Stronger Families – Building Resilience project. Lead partners, Blue Smile, a children’s charity and Relate Cambridge, working with Cambridge Family Mediation Service, bid for two years’ funding from the Evelyn Trust to help local children and families tackle the many challenges in their lives and improve their resilience.

The project was devised in response to alarming statistics about the growth of self harm among children and young people in Cambridgeshire, which is reported to be well above the national average. Poor mental health is often linked to a disadvantaged background and there are high levels of deprivation in some parts of the county, with significant numbers of children living in the poorest 20% of households.