Community / Largest donation yet for Viking Genes as North Yell group pledges £25k
THE VIKING Genes project has been given its biggest single donation to date – a £25,000 cash boost from North Yell Development Council (NYDC).
Professor Jim Wilson, who leads the University of Edinburgh project, said he was “delighted and overwhelmed” by the money.
NYDC receives income from its five-turbine Garth wind farm which it invests into community projects.
Wilson told Shetland News he was “delighted to see that wind farms in Shetland can provide community benefits of this type”.
He added he hopes the donation “motivates other community funding groups to think about Viking Genes Shetland as well”.
The aim is to identify anyone from the island communities with a higher genetic risk of developing a number of life-threatening conditions, with the focus on prevention.
The hope is to screen 5,000 Shetlanders as it builds on work already carried out by the Viking Genes team.
Wilson said: “Large contributions like this I see as the building blocks to actually being able to begin to hire some of the small team that will be able to take the project forward.”
He said as of the first week of June the total raised for Viking Genes stood at more than £70,000.
Wilson also said that many people from Yell previously volunteered for Viking Genes, “which allowed us to discover the elevated frequency there of a variant in the titin gene”.
“This gene variant increases the risk of cardiomyopathy, a type of heart disease which can lead to heart failure,” he said.
“Among Viking Genes volunteers we’ve been able to alert more than ten people with Yell ancestry that they are carrying this variant so that they can take action to prevent the development of disease.
“I’m therefore delighted that the North Yell Development Council has donated this substantial sum of money towards expanding genetic screening. I’m very thankful for their community-based forward planning.”
Viking Genes committee chair Sandra Laurenson said: “This very welcome donation from North Yell Development Council is heartwarming.
“The council is to be applauded for its foresight in how they are developing their community and we thank them for their generosity.
“This donation will allow more people to benefit from genetic screening enabling preventative healthcare.”
North Yell Development Council’s Alice Mathewson said: “We are delighted to be able to make this donation to such a worthwhile cause as the Viking Genes project.
“There was overwhelming support from our board to acknowledge the importance of this work, and we are aware of members of our community who have already benefitted from previous studies undertaken by Jim and his team.
“We wish the project every success in achieving their funding target, in order that many more people can benefit from their findings, and we would encourage others to also acknowledge and contribute towards this potentially lifesaving screening.”
More information on supporting the Viking Genes project can be found here.
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