Relay for Life in Malaysia

Pharmacy students from the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus took part in the National Cancer Society of Malaysia (NCSM) Relay for Life at the Stadium MSN, Bukit Jalil over the weekend of June 1st 2008.

Approximately 40 first and second year Nottingham MPharm students took part in the 16-hour relay marathon, which was organised to help fund NCSM priorities, including the building of a new cancer screening and resource centre in Kuala Lumpur. At least one member of each team participating in the Relay for Life needed to be walking around the stadium's athletics track for the duration of the event. Goh Hwey Shan, Events Manager of PharmNotts, the pharmacy students' own society said: “We were very pleased that so many pharmacy students were involved as it added to the atmosphere of the event and also meant that we did not have to walk so far!”

The PharmNotts team, who were supported by the University's ACE society and also joined by five students from other courses, collected a total of RM1200, which will all go towards NCSM good causes. As night fell a Luminaria Ceremony was held in honour and memory of cancer survivors and those who lost their lives to this disease, which 1 in 4 Malaysians will develop at some point in their lives. The luminaria, which are small bags lit by a single candle, spelt out a message of hope in the stadium.

This event doubled-up as a final farewell to the year two MPharm students, who will shortly be leaving Malaysia for the UK in order to complete the final two years of their pharmacy degrees at the University of Nottingham UK campus.

Dr Stephen Doughty, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Director of Studies for the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus said: “It is wonderful to see so many of our pharmacy students involved in good causes such as the Relay for Life.”