When Jnetics cancelled its inaugural dinner with just four days’ notice, its chair Anthony Angel described the potential loss of income as “a massive blow”.
The dinner, titled Raise to Erase, had been expected to generate around £350,000 towards Jnetics’ work to prevent severe recessive Jewish genetic disorders within the community.
But by Tuesday, £150,000 had been pledged from supporters after the charity sent out requests to table hosts to ask their guests to contribute ‑— and distributed a link to the appeal video which would have been shown at the dinner. The video was extended to include a message from the dinner chair, Mr Angel’s wife Ruth, with a personal reminder of why the Jnetics’ screening programme and educational activities were vital.
She explained that their son Benjamin had cystic fibrosis, “one of the life-threatening genetic disorders we now test for. When Benjamin was born in 1978, it wasn’t possible to discover if you were a carrier for any of these disorders. Benjamin’s diagnosis was a complete shock to us.”
