BC Business
Lorne Campbell, 2015 Jingle Mingle honorary chair and Budget Blinds Victoria owner; and Lou Del Gobbo, BC Cancer Foundation interim president and CEO
The ninth annual Jingle Mingle, presented by Proline Property Management, raised a record-breaking $1.3 million to launch a made-in-Victoria immunotherapy cancer treatment into clinical trials in 2017.
Victoria’s Fairmont Empress Hotel ballroom was transformed into a chic winter chalet for the more than 350 guests. Lorne Campbell, 2015 honorary chair of Jingle Mingle, made a $100,000 gift during the live auction, which was matched by $100,000 from his sister Bonnie. The auction was capped with an additional $500,000 gift.
The BC Cancer Foundation’s Jingle Mingle is Victoria’s largest annual fundraising event and has raised over $4.7 million in its nine-year history. Holiday partygoers have provided funding for immunotherapy research to advance from a concept into a new treatment, specifically adoptive T cell therapy which takes the person’s own T cells (from the immune system), multiplies the ones attacking the cancer into billions and infuses them back into the patient’s bloodstream.