A CLASSIC car rally will pay the annual salary of an Oxford University cancer researcher. Bognor Regis Motor Club has pledged £16,000 raised from its 18th Regis Classic Car Tour in March to fund PhD student Iona Easthope.

The sponsorship has been arranged by Abingdon charity Against Breast Cancer.

Ms Easthope is developing a technique to use a virus to target treatment at cancer cells anywhere in the body.

If successful, this would enable doctors to clear the body of undetectable microscopic cancer cells before they become life-threatening tumours.

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She said: “We hope to prove that this method is effective at killing cancerous cells without damaging non-cancerous tissue which will improve treatments and disease prognosis for patients with breast cancer, and potentially for patients with other cancer-types too.”

The car tour through Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset will be held from March 20-22. Entry fee is £350 per person.

Against Breast Cancer director Wendy Taylor-Hill said: “With one in eight women diagnosed nationwide, breast cancer is the most common cancer and claims the lives of 12,000 people a year in the UK due to secondary spread.

“If we can learn how to detect and destroy secondary breast cancer cells, we can stop people dying of this disease.

“We are grateful to the ladies of the Bognor Regis Motor Club for their support since 2007 and for dedicating the funds they raise in 2015 to this research project for designing exciting new treatments.”

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