Archived
Please note, this page may contain outdated information or subject matter.
Aiden Mitchell, a three-year-old boy from Essex, helped support Action Medical Research at the annual ‘BGC Charity Day’ in Canary Wharf, London on 11 September.
He was joined by his parents Keith and Fleur to accompany charity ambassador Davina McCall and official mascot Paddington Bear™.
Each year global brokerage company BGC Partners and its affiliate Cantor Fitzgerald donate 100 per cent of the global revenues generated on Charity Day to the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund and dozens of charities around the world.
Aiden tries his hand at selling shares for the BGC Charity Day!
When he was born, Aiden suffered from a shortage of oxygen and for the first few hours his parents Keith and Fleur Mitchell didn’t know whether he had survived.
He was whisked away to the intensive care unit where the team began to reduce his body temperature to protect him from brain damage, a process known as cooling therapy. This breakthrough therapy is the product of a 20-year programme of research to which Action Medical Research contributed.
Aiden’s Dad Keith says the family likes to support Action whenever they can: “It’s just such a wonderful charity and we’ll forever be grateful for the research that Action helped fund.
“The BGC Charity Day was just a wonderful experience, with so many familiar faces wanting to have their photo taken with Aiden. He’s such a big fan of Davina and Paddington so it was lovely to spend the day with them and help raise awareness.”
Action Medical Research is a UK-wide children’s charity which funds desperately needed research to tackle the diseases that devastate the lives of so many of our children. It has been funding medical breakthroughs since it began in 1952 including helping to introduce the first polio vaccines in the UK, developing the use of ultrasound in pregnancy and testing the rubella vaccine.
The charity is currently funding research into conditions including asthma, prematurity, epilepsy, meningitis, cerebral palsy, brain cancer and some rare and distressing conditions.
- ENDS –
To download a photo of Aiden, Keith and Fleur with Paddington:
https://www.action.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/press/bgc_2017-aiden_paddington.jpg
To download a photo of Aiden and Davina:
https://www.action.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/press/davina_and_aiden.jpg
To download a photo of Aiden on the phone:
https://www.action.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/press/aiden_and_fleur.jpg
NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Paddington Bear:
For almost 60 years, British-born writer Michael Bond has been delighting children and families all over the world with his stories about Paddington, the bear from Darkest Peru famous for his love of marmalade. Paddington is popular with both children and adults who feel affectionate and warm towards him and the charm and humour of the Paddington stories is the key to their enduring popularity.
Paddington’s adventures have been adapted several times for television and at the end of 2014 Paddington made his debut onto the big screen. The movie, produced by Studiocanal, part of the international content and media group Vivendi, is the best-selling non-Hollywood family movie ever released. A second Paddington movie, Paddington 2, is set to launch globally at the end of 2017.
In 2016, Vivendi took full ownership of the Paddington brand worldwide, with the exception of the classic publishing rights.
In recognition of Paddington’s extraordinary popularity and success, Michael Bond was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) from the Queen for services to children’s literature in 1997 and a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2015. In June of 2017, Michael Bond passed away leaving a legacy of one of the best loved children’s characters in the world, 15 Paddington Bear novels, countless other formats, and a world-wide merchandising programme. 2018 marks the 60th Anniversary of the first book, A Bear Called Paddington, published by HarperCollins in 1958.
Follow Paddington on Twitter at @paddingtonbear
Like Paddington’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PaddingtonBear/
©P&Co. Ltd./SC 2017
Licensed on behalf of Studiocanal S.A.S by Copyrights Group
For more information on Action Medical Research, contact Peter Denton, Fundraising Communications Officer, on:
T: 01403 327480
E:pdenton@action.org.uk
W: action.org.uk
Follow us on Twitter at @actionmedres and @amr_events
Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/actionmedres
Follow us on Instagram at @actionmedres and @actionevents
Action Medical Research is a leading UK-wide charity saving and changing children’s lives through medical research. For 65 years we’ve helped pioneer ways to prevent disease and develop treatments benefiting millions of people. Our research has helped to beat polio in the UK, develop ultrasound in pregnancy, fight meningitis and prevent stillbirths. But we urgently need to develop more new treatments and cures for sick babies and children and we can’t do it without you.
Join our fight for little lives today.
Charity reg. nos 208701 and SC039284.