Tuesday 3 October 2023 – On 9 October, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is launching a new chair in the name of comedian Alex Agnew, whose theatre tour raised €100,000 for the VUB Yamina Krossa Fund for breast cancer research. That funding will enable Prof Damya Laoui and her team to carry out fundamental research into a vaccine against relapse and metastasis over the next two years. The chair is named after Agnew in recognition of his contribution.
Alex Agnew met the fund’s founder, Yamina Krossa, and VUB-VIB professor Damya Laoui while recording his podcast Welcome to the AA. The subject was important to him, because the wife of his colleague Andries Beckers had suffered from breast cancer. Yamina’s enthusiasm inspired him to do more: for every ticket sold to his Wake Me Up When It’s Over tour, he would donate €1 to the VUB Yamina Krossa Fund. Eighteen months later, he’s raised €100,000 for cancer research.
“I’ve been very lucky in my life. So it was time to give something back,” says Agnew. “Damya and Yamina are two great women who I’m happy to support in their dream of eliminating breast cancer.”