Magnet Harlequin has been honoured to help the Debbie Fund with their brand identity, cover artwork and supporting marketing materials.

The Debbie Phillips Cervical Cancer Research Fund (Debbie Fund) was set up in February 2010 following the death, on 11^th February 2010, of Debbie Phillips. Worldwide, cervical cancer is the second most common female cancer with around half a million new cases per year and a quarter of a million deaths. In 2008, when it became clear that Debbie was not going to survive by standard treatments, it was discovered that there was no dedicated drug development research programme specifically into the treatment of cervical cancer anywhere in the world. The Debbie Fund was set up to change that. The plan is to establish a team who will work on novel drug development for cervical cancer; their aim to establish methods that will ultimately identify and test ways of treating cervical cancer.

On the evening of 10th February 2010, 16-year-old Sarah Phillips picked up her mobile phone and sang Paolo Nutini’s ‘Autumn’ into it, without music and pitch perfect; she was to sing the song at her mother Debbie’s funeral.  Video of family holidays was added, and it was posted on YouTube. It has had over 357,000 hits all around the world. In April 2010 it was released for download on iTunes.  It went into the top 10 in the iTunes charts. In the Official UK singles chart on 3^rd April 2010 it was the second highest new entry, and went to No.49. 

 It can be viewed at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIRQvbhdR58 or purchased through the iTunes Store.

The fund is set to do great things, and we are delighted to be a part of it.

Paolo Nutini’s original version of ‘Autumn’ appears on his debut album ‘These Streets’ (Atlantic Records)