12th August 2005
Proceeds donated to charity
UnumProvident, the UK's leading disability insurer, has taken part in an innovative scheme where clippings from yew hedges, growing in the grounds of its Dorking headquarters, Milton Court are used by a company which makes anti-cancer drugs.
The company, Limehurst Ltd, extracts the compound Taxol from the yew bark clippings to make Taxotere, a chemotherapy drug which is effective in the treatment of several cancers, including ovarian, prostate and breast cancer.
This year, gardeners at the Dorking property clipped and bagged 380kg of yew hedge clippings. The clippings are worth 20 pence per kg and this year the proceeds of £76 were once again donated to the charity CLIC Sargent (Cancer and Leukaemia Research in Children).
The yew hedges are clipped each year between July and August when Taxol levels are at their peak. Limehurst Ltd needs about 10kg of clippings to make 3kg of either Taxol or Taxere, and by using clippings the hedges are completely unharmed.
Joanne Hindle, Corporate Services Director at UnumProvident, said:
At UnumProvident, we play an active role in helping people who have fallen ill return to a normal way of life. It therefore seems appropriate that we should contribute in such a practical way to the production of this anti-cancer drug, as well as donating the proceeds to charity.
Harvesting the yew clippings, which would otherwise have gone to waste, is just one of the ways we are looking to incorporate environmental concerns into our business and interact positively with our local community.
ENDS