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I’m back in Singapore, along with hundreds of other industry executives, for the annual TFWA Asia Pacific show and Gate One2One conference.
To me this is the most enjoyable trade show of the year. Singapore is such an outstanding venue in terms of efficiency, climate and facilities. TFWA does a fantastic job and there’s also a wonderful buzz about this event these days, reflecting the vibrancy of Asia Pacific travel retail. Whereas Cannes by dint of sheer scale, always feels daunting and high-pressure, there’s a nice mellowness about this event, underpinned by a real sense of a business on the move.
It’s a big week for The Moodie Report. We will be showing our latest products – a record Singapore show print edition, a 200-page coffee table book celebrating Duty Free Philippines’ 25th anniversary, a special supplement that looks back on Changi Airport’s 30 years of excellence, and another supplement that examines some of the most progressive liquor retailing in our sector. Our word factory has been working overtime in recent weeks and it’s nice to take a breather.
Just as importantly we’re here to talk about The Moodie Report Foundation, a new charitable entity dedicated to supporting cancer research and other cancer concerns worldwide. Significant seed funding is being put in place, both by me and by my fellow shareholder in Moodie International, the Wampler Family Trust (represented by Moodie International S.A. President Jaclyn Wampler), and on 5 October in Hong Kong at the Hotel Icon we plan to really raise the ante at a charity fund-raising Ball that will also celebrate our 10th anniversary.
Already since the announcement of the Foundation on Friday we have raised a further US$35,000. The war against cancer will be won by research, the sort of research that saved my life after I was diagnosed with advanced and aggressive stomach cancer just after this very trade show two years ago. Given the darkness that ensued in my life, I find it incredible (and wonderfully invigorating) that I can be feeling so good today. Ten days ago, just before I departed for this long Asian trip, I was given the best medical verdict yet by my wonderful oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital.
It ain’t over yet of course (I need six-monthly check-ups for another three and a half years) but he was very encouraging indeed, saying “At this stage it looks more and more like a complete recovery.” And here’s the thing, my life has been saved because of medical research. I was part of a programme called ‘the magic trial’ designed to beat cancers like mine. When I asked my oncologist (one of the global leaders in his field) about funding for such research, he said that money has dried up horribly due to the state of the UK economy.
Stomach cancer is the second most mortal cancer in the world (some 750,000 deaths every year) and has its epicentre in North Asia (notably Korea, Japan and China). To beat it, ongoing research simply must be funded. For some reason, despite its viciousness, it’s not a high-profile cancer and so funding for research lags behind. That is one of the many things I would like to change with The Moodie Report Foundation. I am also acutely aware of several industry friends currently struggling with cancer and going through similar fights to the one I had with this bullying beast of an illness.
You have to stand up to the bully. So do we all. Reseach will one day ensure that cancer is beaten. Please put 5 October in your diary. We plan one heck of a celebration of ten years and, more importantly, of life. And we plan to do it in a way that will help bring hope to many, many people.
I look forward to discussing it with many of you this week.
[With Antares Cheng, Managing Director of King Power Group (HK) and his daughter Karli at the Opening Cocktail]
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