As some of you may remember, Anne Barlow was chair of the Wanstead Society until her death in 2010. Anne died of secondary bone cancer, so my immediate reaction was to approach Cancer ResearchUKin order to make a donation to funding directed at research into bone cancer. I was most surprised to learn that there was no money going to that particular form of the disease. Cancer ResearchUksuggested that, if I could think of a suitable project, then they would open a fund stream for me.
Anne liked her music. In fact there were two pieces of music directly associated with Anne. The first is a setting of a poem written for the two of us by my sister when Anne first fell ill and subsequently set to music. The second is a rather obscure piece of Vivaldi, called “Ah ch’infelice smpre” from Cantata RV684 “Cessate omai cessate”, which Anne heard on the radio at the end of 2009 and had wanted to include in her singing lessons. Unfortunately, cancer caught up with her before she could start to learn the piece. I proposed to record these two pieces and sell the resulting CD single with the proceeds going to Cancer Research. They, in the meantime, had set up “The Anne Barlow Cancer Fund” to receive the funds.
The money will go towards clinical trial of a new class of drugs called bisphosphonates which, it is believed, might stop bone cancer in its tracks for some people – a worthwhile cause indeed.