What help can gaps:line be?

If you have been told that your child has cancer or leukaemia, your situation is unique, no one knows exactly how you feel and no one can tell you how things will turn out. Nevertheless, people in your situation have found it extremely helpful to talk with someone who has faced something similar. By ringing gaps:line, you can speak to a parent who has found themselves having to cope with the emotional torment, such a diagnosis can cause.

None of the parents you might speak to, is a medical expert. So they won't be able to answer any technical questions you might have, though they may be able to point you in the right direction. Each of them has received training to provide emotional support and help and therefore can offer a sympathetic and effective 'listening ear'. Their ability to support and help has benefited from that training and has been increased by what they themselves have experienced.

Brazilian Funding - Prof Dr Beny Spira, USP Brasil

Bryan Gunn's Appeal is working with experts across the world.

They include Beny Spira, of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Sao Paulo, in Brazil.

Dr Spira is currently investigating the effects of some Brazilian medicinal plants on leukaemia. He is examining the possibility of them preventing leukaemia in healthy people, and of aiding chemotherapy for those who already have the disease.

Dr Spira visited Norfolk for the first time in 2002 and spent a week in Norwich - visiting the Francesca Gunn Laboratory and talking to UEA professors and students about his work.

He spoke of some 300 medicinal plants found in the rainforest, and how such plant-based research into leukaemia has two important goals. It aims to prevent and treat illness while, at the same time, conserving the forest for generations to come.

"This work may be very important. Scientific research needs a lot of money - equipment needs to be acquired and materials need to be bought," said Dr Spira. "It's very good news this appeal is raising money for research into leukaemia and I think everyone at the Francesca Gunn Laboratory is doing a very good job."

View the updates received from the research in Brazil.