Carden Cancer Research Fellowship

Joan Carden, the famous Australian soprano, has drawn my attention to the death aged 85 in December 2014 of Dr Donald Metcalf, holder of the Carden Cancer and Leukaemia Research Fellowship almost from its inception. Metcalf spent more than 40 years developing colony stimulating factors, or CSFs, for clinical use. An estimated 20 million people have now been treated with CSFs, including the Spanish tenor José Carreras, improving their chances of beating cancer.

“CSFs are now standard treatment and every year the number of people alive because Don’s work grows,” said Professor Douglas Hilton, director of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute off Medical Research.

George Frederick Carden (1872-1942), a wealthy businessman and Melbourne City Councillor, left most of his money to establish the fellowship because of family disagreements, described in the Bendigo chapter of my book Carden of Cheshire. He was a son of John Moss Carden who emigrated from Cheshire as a teenager and in due course became a member of the Ballarat and Bendigo stock exchanges. He was a younger brother of Joan’s grandfather William Henry Pearson Carden of Kalgoorlie.

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