Both foundations have, in accordance to their statues, the same aim - to support clinical cancer research in Sweden. They work together under the name Radiumhemmets Forskningsfonder (The Cancer Research Foundations of Radiumhemmet). The foundations have joint offices at the premises of Karolinska University Hospital in Solna county.
The Cancer Society and the Jubilee Foundation together have a capital of more than SEK 1 billion. New funding comes partly from return of the capital in the shape of dividends and interest rates, partly from legacies and bequests from the public. The latter are of great importance since more than 90% of Swedish cancer research is funded by charitable organisations through donations from the public.
A total amount of around SEK 40 million is granted annually by the foundations to a wide range of cancer research projects. The foundations have also, through the years, made considerable once-for-all donations. The most recent was in the 1990´s as the largest single financier of the building of the CancerCentreKarolinska laboratories at the Karolinska University Hospital in Solna.
History
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| His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf is patron of The Cancer Society and The Jubilee Foundation. |
The Cancer Society in Stockholm was initiated by the surgeon Professor John Berg in the year of 1910.
He realised early on the importance of radiation therapy when treating cancer and started a radiation clinic together with Professor Gösta Forssell – the first cancer treatment clinic in Sweden. Professors Berg and Forssell started fundraising to be able to run the clinic. The Swedish Cancer Society, later reorganised as the Cancer Society in Stockholm, was formed in order to take care of the fundraising and administer the raised funds.
The first patients received their treatment in a room in the basement at Serafimer Hospital. Later on the clinic moved to a small private hospital in an apartment at Scheelegatan in Stockholm. The hospital was named Radiumhemmet (The Radium Home) to give the patients a sense of security and home. Radiumhemmet grew and moved to new bigger premises at Fjällgatan in the southern parts of Stockholm city in the year of 1916. The Cancer Society’s main purpose was to be responsible for the running of Radiumhemmet until the year of 1938.
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The Jubilee Foundation was founded with donations from the public for Gustaf V's 70th birthday.
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The King Gustaf V’s Jubilee Foundation was formed in 1928 in connection with the celebration of King Gustaf V’s 70th birthday.
An initiative was taken to raise funds among the Swedish people. SEK 5 million was raised, which in today’s monetary value corresponds to more than SEK 120 million. It was decided that half of the money should be used as start-up capital for a foundation with the aim of cancer research and cancer treatments, and so the King Gustaf V’s Jubilee Foundation was formed. The other half of the funds raised was used to build three more cancer treatment clinics – the Jubilee Clinics – in Stockholm, Lund and Gothenburg. The Jubilee Foundation later also contributed money to the building of a Jubilee Clinic in Umeå.
From health care to research
The current building of Radiumhemmet was ready in the year of 1938 as one of the first buildings at the premises of Karolinska University Hospital in Solna. Building Radiumhemmet was made possible through significant funding from the Cancer Society and the Jubilee Foundation. The foundations foremost purpose until the year of 1938 had been to fund the running of Radiumhemmet.
An agreement was made between the foundations and the Swedish government when the new building of Radiumhemmet was finished, where the Swedish government agreed to take over the running of the cancer treatment clinic according to the existing guidelines. The foundations joined forces and concentrated on the cancer research they had worked so hard on.
At the time of the municipalisation of Karolinska Hospital in the year of 1982, Stockholm County Council took over the running of Radiumhemmet and also the agreement from 1941. The Cancer Society in Stockholm and the King Gustaf V’s Jubilee Foundation has thus become two of the foremost funders of Swedish cancer research from having laid the foundations of Swedish cancer treatment.