There’s no doubt that Ruddington enjoys a considerable canine population; not only the hundreds of four-legged friends owned by village residents but also the many visiting Rushcliffe Country Park and our rural footpaths to be exercised by their owners.
Villager Lucinda Martin, who works for Nottingham’s FRAME charity, is encouraging others to join her to get fit whilst raising funds for medical research by taking part in the ‘Summer 100-mile Dog Walking Challenge!’ You’re invited to sign up now via their dedicated Facebook page, send off for your FREE t-shirt, get people to sponsor you and then complete a hundred miles with your hound in as many different stages and places as you wish before the end of August.
FRAME is short for ‘Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments’. The charity believes in the development of better scientific methods for the benefit of humans and animals – aiming to eliminate the need to use laboratory animals in any kind of medical or scientific procedures. Through the use of ethically donated human tissues, computer modelling and other new and innovative techniques, it claims research can provide data that is more directly relevant to human conditions and disease. The cash raised by its supporters helps to fund both laboratory and desk based research to investigate such potential new, valid scientific methods and promote them through its various campaigns.
Lucinda, who came up with this fundraising idea, says: “I was quite inspired by Ruddington when I started organising the challenge. I love walking through the park and seeing everyone’s dogs… and I want a world where every dog can enjoy that, not spend their summer in a laboratory. Ruddington also has such a community vibe to it, with the Ruddington Village Market, the events at the church, and just the friendliness when you’re out and about. I’d be so proud to see members of my community getting involved this summer to help build a better world for humans and animals.”
Whilst she’s only been working with FRAME since 2021, she has been a supporter for many years: “I think the work we do is hugely important because non-animal research methods offer better prospects for both humans and animals. 2.88 million scientific procedures used animals in 2020 in Great Britain. Despite this huge number of animals used, it’s not translating into progress in many areas. An example is Alzheimer’s which uses a lot of animal models to research the condition and possible treatments, but we’re not seeing this develop into viable treatment options.”
Lucinda is concerned that non-animal methods receive very little funding in comparison to animal methods, despite seeing exciting discoveries and developments all the time: “Modern approaches have the potential not only to replace historical animal tests, but give new insights and understanding into human disease and our responses to chemicals and drugs” she explains. “The more we can fund and champion non-animal methods, the faster we can get to a world where human-relevant research is the norm. Any non-animal methods used for chemical safety tests or drug development have been approved by the same regulatory bodies and assessed as safe. Non-animal methods are actually therefore held to higher safety and regulatory standards than the original animal methods. Animal tests were never validated in the same way modern regulatory tests are. In fact there is mounting evidence to show that human-based cell culture and computer modelling approaches have the potential to be more predictive of human responses, and therefore safer, than animal tests.”
The more dog walkers FRAME can get raising sponsorship in Ruddington (and elsewhere) this summer, the more money the charity will be able to award – including its annual research grant to the FRAME Lab at the University of Nottingham and two main grant programmes it runs every year: The ‘Summer Studentship Scheme’ provides small grants to undergraduates to allow them to carry out a summer project focused on non-animal research methods – giving them a chance to develop their research skills in this area – whilst the ‘Innovation Grant Scheme’ is aimed at exploratory research to advance non-animal techniques.
“One Innovation Grant we funded last year is helping to develop an early diagnosis technique for ovarian cancer” continues Lucinda. “This is really important because current research models use aggressive cancer models in mice which as well as having the potential to cause suffering to the mice, provides very little data on the early stages of ovarian cancer, which is when it’s the most treatable. Unfortunately, if ovarian cancer is diagnosed at a later stage, it’s much less treatable so being able to diagnose this disease at an earlier stage could save so many lives.”
FRAME also seeks to promote these methods around the world through its scientific journal ATLA as well as its education, policy, and outreach work.
Lucinda, who has lived in Ruddington for four years, adds: “You’re likely to see me around the Country Park this summer, with my FRAME t-shirt on, taking on the challenge with my friend and his dogs Max & Ruby. So please do say hi!”
To join FRAME’s ‘Summer 100-mile Dog Walking Challenge’ you’re asked to sign up as soon as possible via their dedicated Facebook page >>HERE<<.
