The Alan Rickman Professorship in Facial Surgery covering Head and Neck Cancer, Facial Injury and Disfigurement
Facial diseases, disorders and injuries occur frequently.
Every year, around 5% of every country’s population will have treatment for a facial disease or injury. For example, every year in the UK:
- 125,000 people suffer severe facial injuries
- 13,000 people develop disfiguring mouth and head and neck cancers. These are the fifth commonest cancer in the world.
- 50,000 people need treatment for facial skin cancers.
- 30,000 people need surgery for facial deformity.
- Jaw joint pain and stiffness affects many teenagers and some need joint replacement
Photographed by Ellis Parrinder
Lindsay Duncan CBE
Alan’s life had an impact for good which went beyond his hugely successful career. He saw the potential in people, in collaborations, he felt injustice keenly and if he could make something better for one person, or for a wider cause then he would.
Alan made a commitment to Saving Faces and I want to help his commitment to be fulfilled. The Professorship is an important next step for this wonderful charity and a perfect way to honour Alan’s integrity and generosity. Please help us by donating and asking your friends and contacts to do the same.
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They often leave life-changing physical and emotional scars, undermining self-esteem and dignity, isolating patients from others, affecting their job opportunities and sometimes condemning them to impoverished lives in the shadows.
Surgery is the mainstay of treatment for these conditions. Facial surgeons not only operate on complex physical structures but also need to support patients through the emotional impact of their disease or injury and its treatment.
For example, research funding for facial injuries is virtually non-existent and most cancers receive significantly more research funding than mouth and face cancers – sometimes as much as 37 times more!
Saving Faces has joined forces with The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS), The British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and The British Oculoplastic Surgical Society to create NFORC which is the world’s only centre dedicated to researching better treatment for facial conditions.
NFORC now partners more than 200 surgeons at multiple hospitals across the UK. This collaboration creates big data, so we can determine best treatment practice and find new and innovative ways to treat cancer, deformity and trauma more rapidly and efficiently. It means we find research answers to best treatment quicker than the most famous hospitals in the world because their patient numbers are not large enough to do this.
NFORC’s nationwide research capability has already been recognised and funded by The Department of Health, Cancer Research UK and private American research companies.
A few examples of Saving Faces and NFORC nationwide studies:
- Early Mouth Cancer. This pioneering research is saving 30,000 lives every year by identifying the best treatment for early mouth cancer. It succeeded because the centre worked with 68 surgeons studying over 700 patients at multiple UK hospitals. The paper reporting this research is in the top 5% of all medical or scientific papers.
- National Facial Injury Studies. Our UK wide facial injury studies are unique resulting in the development of prevention strategies.
- Identifying Genetic markers. Our findings will improve targeting of cancer treatment.
- Tobacco and alcohol prevention programmes and campaigns in UK Schools. Our research reducing smoking and binge drinking by 14- and 15-year-old pupils was commended in Parliament by Health Ministers.
- Early detection of domestic violence (DV). Our work in identifying DV before dreadful harm occurs was commended in Parliament.
This type of nationwide research will have an immediate impact improving surgical treatment and is exactly what the new Alan Rickman Professor will deliver. The Professor will lead research to improve the lives of all people with facial injuries, diseases and disfigurement.
NFORC is the only national centre in the world dedicated to facial surgery research. It is a unique collaboration between facial surgeons and scientists.
NFORC now needs leadership by an internationally recognised, distinguished, oral and facial surgeon who will command the respect of all surgeons around the world. They will direct NFORC. Their work will improve treatment for all patients around the world and save many lives.
Their academic career will be dedicated to working at NFORC with surgeons from many nations. Their research will generate big data that will rapidly determine best treatment and find new, ground-breaking ways of treating cancer, deformity and trauma.
With NFORC data, the Chair will gain large grants from major global funding bodies for specific research projects. These additional funds will extend NFORC’s research capacity and gain national and international kudos for the Professor and NFORC. Alan’s name will always be associated with this work.
Alan Rickman was a generous and supportive patron of Saving Faces because he had known actors whose careers had been blighted by facial injury or cancer. The Professor will hold free public events every year to present their research results. Alan will be showcased as the inspiration for these results and clips from Alan’s films will be shown at these annual events keeping his “voice” alive for new generations. All media associated with the research will commemorate Alan and his career.
The Professor will be based in the internationally renowned Medical and Dental School. Their performance will be reviewed annually by the Scientific Advisory Board of NFORC to ensure high-value research improving treatment outcomes.
£5 million is needed to create a permanent endowment. The annual interest from this invested capital sum will fund the research part of the Professor’s salary and grow the endowment. In this way the Professor will be permanently funded and Alan Rickman’s name will forever be associated with great advances in treatment for facial injuries, diseases and disfigurement.