Madeleine Newton died on the 16th November 1987. She was thirty-two years old. She left a husband, lan, and a two-year old daughter, Gwen.

   At the request of her husband, instead of flowers at her funeral, relatives and friends donated money to the Natural Medicines Society. The NMS decided that the money given in Madeleine's name should create a separate fund specifically to:

   provide money for research - either supporting or instigating specific projects; research is vital if the value of natural medicines and therapies is to be established and if these are then to be easily available to the general public.

   establish clinics throughout the UK where qualified practitioners can treat patients, ideally in collaboration with local hospitals; we place equal emphasis on research and on the treatment of patients, knowing that some alternative methods for tackling cancer are already available and that there are many people eager to be treated but who have no access to these treatments.

   educate and promote knowledge of the various complementary and alternative treatments already available to practitioners.

   promote knowledge of the various complementary and alternative treatments available to patients and their families.

   The cancer that killed Madeleine had been diagnosed only eight months before. Such deaths are common. Each one is tragic, each one confronts us with the devastation cancer can bring into the lives of each of us. It is because we experience cancer in our own lives, as sufferers or friends and relatives of sufferers, that we give freely of our time and money to raise resources for medical research into the disease and its treatment.