PREVIOUS CHARITIES
2022 – THE MAGIC FUTURE FOUNDATION
The Magic Future Foundation’s aim is to build sustainable schools in some of the world’s poorest countries in partnership with buildOn, a US non-profit organisation with an unparalleled record of having built more than 2000 schools over the last 30 years; all but two (which were stricken by natural disasters) are still in operation. The founders’ son Oli tragically died in 2019 aged just 25. In order to create a positive legacy from this tragedy, the family and the Foundation have activated a project — to build 100 Schools in honour of him. The £305,000 raised enabled 10 schools to be built.
Find out more at: https://oliverwissenbach.com/magicfuturefoundation
2018 – THE HOLY GRAIL OF HEART DIAGNOSTICS
Our 2018 charity was the cMyC project at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, a revolutionary approach to the way heart attacks are diagnosed. The Coeur Blanc funds of £250,000 enabled Professor Mike Marbler to take his project to the next stage – and ultimately hoping to develop a ‘near-patient’ testing hand-held device, that provides an immediate, fine-tuned answer, by measuring ‘cMyC”.
They have since partnered with a specialist venture capital fund to engage with a variety of diagnostic companies.
Unfortunately, the 2020 event was cancelled as we were due to fly out on 12th March just as travel restrictions due to the pandemic were put in place worldwide.
2016 – SNOW-CAMP
The charity supported by Coeur Blanc 2016 — to the tune of £270,000 — was Snow-Camp, which turns young people’s lives around by introducing them to snowsports.
Snow-Camp now takes young people from absolute beginners to qualified snowsports instructors over one life-changing year at indoor snow centres and artificial ski slopes. Programmes have developed from an annual ski trip to an accredited series of programmes using a combination of snowsports, life-skills and employment training.
Find out more at: https://www.snow-camp.org.uk/
2014 – GREENHOUSE SPORTS
Greenhouse Sports is a charity that believes every child deserves a fair chance to succeed. It places sports coaches in schools and community clubs to develop the ‘Social, Thinking, Emotional and Physical ‘(STEP) skills of young people from London’s most disadvantaged areas.
The 2014 Coeur Blanc Challenge raised £380,000 for Greenhouse Sports programmes and since then the charity has continued to grow, transforming the lives of thousands more young people through sport — developing 15 new programmes in disadvantaged communities across London and also securing the charity’s permanent home, the Greenhouse Centre.
Find out more at: https://www.greenhousesports.org/
2012 – SKILLFORCE
SkillForce was a national education and military veterans’ charity that worked with schools to transform lives. It supported young people in more than 200 schools across England, Wales and Scotland. Drawing on ex-Services personnel, the vision was to help young people be the best they can be through an inspiring combination of active mentoring, educational programmes and awards, supported by their Royal Patron HRH The Prince of Wales.
The £270,000 raised from the Coeur Blanc enabled SkillForce to engage with more schools and help more young people reach their potential. It also helped recruit and train more veterans across the UK, particularly in Scotland, giving those who have served their country a fresh opportunity to share their skills.
2010 – DATABASE FIRST FOR MELANOMA TREATMENT
Our second event in 2010 raised £250,000 for a melanoma database project to help UK hospitals determine which protocols to follow. Increasingly, skin cancer treatments are tailored to patients’ own genetic makeup, but this is difficult without a database. We funded a data collection exercise, which has helped make tailoring easier and quicker.
The project was given a further boost, with an additional donation of £250,000 from a large pharmaceutical company. This allowed the database to gather information on patients retrospectively.
Today, many hospitals in the UK that treat melanoma have access to the database, with plans to broaden coverage increasing rapidly.
2008 – UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL AND ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL
A Leukaemia Research Project led by Professor Tony Goldstone CBE. The project was to record Minimum Residual Disease “MRD” in leukaemia patients after their first wave of chemotherapy.
The test measures down to one part in 1,000 of diseased bone marrow, and in simple terms, if the test shows a good response to chemotherapy, the normal chemo protocol would continue. But if the test showed a less good response, patients would be considered for a bone marrow transplant at a much earlier stage of treatment, increasing their chances of a successful transplant.
The event raised £260,000.
