Mel Greaves has a simple goal in life. He is trying to create a yoghurt-like drink that would stop children from developing leukemia.
The idea might seem eccentric; cancers are not usually defeated so simply. However, Professor Greaves is confident and, given his experience in the field, his ideas are being taken seriously by other cancer researchers.
Based at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, Greaves has been studying childhood leukemia for three decades. On Friday, it was announced that he had received a knighthood in the New Year honors list for the research he has carried out in the field.
“For 30 years I have been obsessed about the reasons why children get leukemia,” he says. “Now, for the first time, we have an answer to that question.”