Director Australiano

Quando o cinema se cruzam para apoiar uma causa nobre

"Aussie director recruits stars for cause"

07:31 AEST Fri Mar 13 2009

17 hours 39 minutes ago

By Peter Mitchell

An Aussie has recruited Penelope Cruz (L) and Scarlett Johansson to push for new cancer treatments.

---

An
Australian director grieving the death of his wife has recruited
Hollywood's A-List, including Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, Mickey
Rourke and Naomi Watts, to help put pressure on governments and drug
companies to fast track the approval of immunotherapies he believes can
save cancer patients.

Paul Sanderson's wife, Briggs, died July 1 last year in New York after battling colorectal cancer.

The actress and costume designer was 39.

"I
believe Briggs would still be alive today if the immunotherapies we
were seeking for her were available to us," Sydney-born Sanderson, a
New York-based director and playwright, told AAP.

Sanderson said
he contacted a major pharmaceutical company seeking "compassionate
access" to a promising immunotherapy bogged down in clinical trials
since 2001 and yet to be approved for public use.

His request was refused.

Sanderson
produced a video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlqX5Aq_hLs) and created an
online petition
(http://www.petition.co.uk/New_Breakthrough_Cancer_Immunotherapy) to
shine a light on the issue and hopefully speed up the testing and
approval of the cancer treatment so others would not suffer.

The online petition has attracted 4,160 signatures, including many of Hollywood's biggest stars.

The first celebrity to join the cause was actor Jimmy Smits, a longtime friend of Briggs.

Other
celebrities to sign the petition include: Elle Macpherson, Katherine
Heigl, Susan Sarandon, Rob Lowe, Denise Richards, Josh Lucas, Debra
Messing, Emily Blunt and singer Steve Tyrell, who also lost his wife to
colorectal cancer.

Sanderson said immunotherapies have been successful in respected medical research centres Duke University and UCLA.

They stimulate the body's immune system to attack tumours, he said.

Briggs
began writing a book about her ordeal but never finished it. Sanderson
has vowed to complete it, although it has been heart-wrenching for him.

"It has been tough going back and dredging everything up," he said.