The Maritime Economist Magazine Spring 2015 | Page 59

THEMARITIME Economist

CHARITY

The OSCAR Campaign
The Ocean and Shipping Community Advancing
Children’s Health and Research

Shipping industry unites for OSCAR
When your child gets sick the world stops spinning,
yet spins faster than ever at the same time. This is
what happened to Phil and Yvonne Parry 12 years
ago when their son, Oscar, fell ill with leukaemia.
Oscar was only three and the next five years were
filled with hope, despair, harsh treatments and
hospitalisation. Thanks to his Bone Marrow
Transplant team trying new treatments in
collaboration with doctors in Holland, France
and the U.S, today he is now an energetic teenager.
To show his gratitude and help Great Ormond
Street Hospital to help more children Phil Parry
launched the OSCAR Campaign.

more severe form of the disease. “Watching Oscar
get better only to see him contract a second cancer
and then relapse over and over again was very hard
for us. On 14th January 2007 we were told that he
would not survive the day. However, thanks to new
treatments pioneered by his team at Great Ormond
Street Hospital he is now completely cured and his
case is now used to treat other patients. To witness
first-hand the unbelievable dedication and support
from the doctors, nurses and support staff who were
simply unwilling to give up on him was humbling”,
says Phil.
Help OSCAR to help more seriously ill children

Named after his son, the OSCAR Campaign is a
fundraising partnership uniting the shipping industry
to raise research funds for Great Ormond Street
Hospital in London and its partner, the UCL Institute
of Child Health. The Campaign Board is filled with
shipping executives and Phil Parry is Chairman of the
Campaign as well as Chairman of leading shipping
recruitment company and HR consultants Spinnaker
Global Ltd.

During the years when he and his wife almost lived
at Great Ormond Street Hospital, the idea of doing
something to give back to the team and hospital that

Against the odds
For a number of years Oscar was undergoing
treatment for acute leukaemia at Great Ormond
Street Hospital, only then to contract JMML, an even

Phil Parry of Spinnaker Global (pictured left) is
Chairman of the OSCAR Campaign seen here at the OSCAR
Dragon Boat event with his 15 year old son Oscar
(centre) and Olympic gold medallist, the rower
Helen Glover who presented the medals to the top three.

ME Mag

“Having spent the last 20 years working in shipping,
this is a brilliant opportunity for those of us in the
international shipping community to come together in
support of a cause that, although not directly related
to our industry, could affect any one of us”, explains
Phil.

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