Property Picnic returns to raise fresh funding for Cancer Trials Ireland

When the team at Bannon decided last year to organise a fundraiser for Cancer Trials Ireland in memory of their colleague Louise Creevy (née Doherty) who had sadly passed away, they thought it would be a one-off event. Such was the success of the Property Picnic, however, more than 650 guests from across the industry turned up for the gathering at 1WML in the Windmill Quarter and raised €170,087 in the process.

Given the picnic’s popularity, and with the funding raised contributing to trials in which 144 cancer patients in Ireland got to avail of cutting-edge treatments that they could not otherwise have accessed, and at no cost to themselves or the State, it’s hardly surprising that the event is back on this year. Keystone sponsorship for this year’s Property Picnic is being provided by Hibernia Real Estate Group, MCR, Core Capital, Matheson, Mastertech, and Glass Bottle (RGRE and Lioncor). Tickets for the event, which takes place on May 18th at 1WML in the Windmill Quarter, Dublin 2, cost €55 with an additional booking fee of €5.

Commenting on the importance of events such as Property Picnic to her organisation’s work, Cancer Trials Ireland chief executive Eibhlín Mulroe said: “Cancer Trials offer treatment options to patients. First and foremost, that is why many doctors working in cancer in Ireland seek to get patients on to trials.

“Within that, fundraisers like the Property Picnic help Cancer Trials Ireland to open a very important category of cancer clinical trials known as ‘investigator-led’ – read ‘doctor-led’ – trials. These trials are non-commercial. The research questions they ask are driven by patient need rather than commercial reasons.

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“Last year, Property Picnic funds went towards four such investigator-led trials. Two of the trials were breast cancer trials, one in HER2-positive breast cancer, affecting one in five women in Ireland with breast cancer, the other in triple-negative breast cancer, affecting one in eight women, and is more common in younger women. The other two trials were in prostate cancer – one trial for previously untreated high-risk, localised prostate cancer, and the other for progressive, metastatic (ie cancer that has spread from where it first formed) prostate cancer.

“With the Property Picnic’s help, Cancer Trials Ireland was able to close out three of these trials, and in one case (the high-risk, localised prostate cancer study) present findings at a prestigious international cancer conference earlier this year, which showed the trial did achieve its primary objective of reducing prostate gland volume.”