Tom Isaacs (fundraiser)

Tom Isaacs (2 April 1968[1] – 31 May 2017)[1] was a British charity fundraiser and the President of The Cure Parkinson's Trust, which he co-founded.[2] Among other achievements, he completed a 4,500-mile charity walk around the coast of Britain in order to raise funds for research into Parkinson's disease[3]

Isaacs, the son of a solicitor, trained as a surveyor, but was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in his mid-twenties, while working in London. He went on to found The Cure Parkinson's Trust,[4] with others he had met in the course of his sponsored walk,[5] and raised around £350,000 in total for medical research. He was named Charity Personality of the Year in 2004 and was one of the bearers of the Olympic torch in 2012.[1] He was invited to meet Pope Francis after speaking at the Euro Stem Cell consortium in Rome.[6]

Isaacs was one of the participants in a revolutionary trial of the drug GDNF which took place between 2012 and 2017, in which 41 Parkinson's sufferers had surgery to introduce implants that enabled the drug to be delivered direct to their brain cells, in the hope that the cells contributing to Parkinson's could be repaired.[7]

Isaacs died suddenly, of heart failure, shortly after the trial was completed. Tributes to him included one from The Michael J. Fox Foundation; Fox himself said "Tom's passion, determination and hard work on behalf of everyone living with Parkinson's were the hallmark of his life and will be his continuing legacy in our community."[8] Following his death, the Tom Isaacs Memorial Award was established to honour a researcher into Parkinson's Disease. The first winner was Professor Tom Foltynie of University College, London.[9]

In 2019, the BBC screened a two-part documentary about the GDNF trial, in which Isaacs played a leading role.[10] One reviewer referred to Isaacs' "warmth and charm" as a factor which made the documentary "overwhelmingly and heartbreakingly intimate".[11] The programme later won a Grierson television award for "Best Science Documentary". The judges commented that it "stood out for its lean storytelling of a complex subject, its scale and its heart."[12]

References
  1. Matthew Lennon (28 June 2017). "Parkinson's pioneer and charity founder Tom Isaacs from Croxley dies aged 49". Watford Observer. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  2. "Tom Isaacs Memorial". Parkinson's Coalition. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  3. "Tom Isaacs". The Times. 5 July 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  4. "The Cure Parkinson's Trust & Parkinson's Community Mourn the Loss of Their Champion Tom Isaacs". The Cure Parkinson's Trust official website. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  5. Lyndsey Isaacs, Roger Barker and Eilís Dowd (16 October 2018). "In memory of Tom Isaacs: The epitomical mover and shaker". European Journal of Neuroscience. 49 (3): 303. doi:10.1111/ejn.14205. hdl:10379/15036. PMID 30326157.
  6. "CPT Co-founder Tom Isaacs Presents at the Euro Stem Cell Consortium in Rome". The Cure Parkinson's Trust. 11 November 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  7. "Pioneering trial offers hope for restoring brain cells damaged in Parkinson's". University of Bristol. 27 February 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  8. "The Michael J. Fox Foundation Mourns Passing of Tom Isaacs". Michael J. Fox Foundation. 1 June 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  9. "Nominations open for the Tom Isaacs Award 2018". Parkinson's Academy. 11 April 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  10. Michael Hogan (7 March 2019). "The Parkinson's Drug Trial: a Miracle Cure? episode 2 review: a raw, downbeat ending to this powerfully poignant documentary". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  11. Tom Ough. "The Parkinson's Drug Trial: a Miracle Cure? review: possibly the most powerful documentary you will see this year". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  12. "The Grierson Awards 2019: Winners". The Grierson Trust. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
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