Donor makes national headlines
Published 29 October 2010
Retired businessman Michael Chowen, who regularly donates to the University of Brighton, was featured in The Times on 29 October.
The newspaper said: After surviving cancer, for which he had been given a gloomy prognosis, Michael Chowen decided to do something worthwhile with his money. The founder of the chain of British Bookshops & Stationers, now retired, Mr Chowen donated £625,000 to the Universities of Brighton and Sussex.
It was a hospital worker who suggested to the businessman, after he had an operation and chemotherapy, that he could make a difference with his wealth.
Mr Chowen, who lives near Brighton, said: "The person who examined me said, 'You've been lucky' as I'd been told the situation was very serious. The universities run a medical school and the first donation I made, for £125,000, was to its imaging department.
"But with matched funding from the government, and Gift Aid, you can leverage much more than that from donations, and transform relatively small sums to pay for expensive medical equipment, a specialist, or new premises. It becomes very exciting."
Mr Chowen's second donation, for £500,000, was to the medical school's oncology department, to create a new unit, which funded work towards developing new and improved treatments for curing cancer.
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Contact: Marketing and Communications, University of Brighton, 01273 643022
