About The Sydney Driscoll Neuro-Science Foundation

How it began

Sydney Driscoll was a successful business entrepreneur in the Blackpool area. He was treated for a brain tumour at the Preston Royal Infirmary in the 1960s by the late Mr Kenneth Tutton, Consultant neurosurgeon.

In 1989, Lucille Driscoll gave a cheque for £1000 to Mr Tutton in memory of her late husband. Mr Tutton, who had retired by then, passed on the cheque to Professor Nihal Gurusinghe who decided to use the money to purchase essential books to be used by the doctors and nurses working at the Department of Neurosurgery, Preston. The books were in a small bookcase located in an unused room adjacent to the neurosurgical wards at the Royal Preston Hospital. This room has since been enlarged and is now the location of the SDNF library which is a unique facility used by trainees and clinical practitioners in Neuroscience as well as medical students.

Over the next few years, Lucille Driscoll made further donations to support neuroscience. Professor Gurusinghe decided  that these contributions should be placed in a Trust Fund and approached a local lawyer Andrew Ferguson to help and together they set up the Board of Trustees to govern the Charity. Professor Gurusinghe was the first Chair of the Trust Fund and continued for well over a decade. Together with Andrew Ferguson he sought the help of many colleagues and prominent persons and professionals from the Preston area to serve as Trustees.

The SDNF was formally registered as a company in 2008 and as a UK Charity (Number 1129387) in 2009.

Lucille Driscoll was always delighted with the idea that the money which she donated was being used to enhance neuroscience provision education and research. When she died in late 2000 she left a substantial legacy to SDNF in her will which has enabled the Trustees to expand their support for neuroscience projects generally.

Andrew Ferguson who is the current Chair of the Board has been pivotal in the success of the SDNF.