Henry Engelhardt, CBE and Diane Briere de L’Isle-Engelhardt, OBE
Following their passions to expand philanthropy’s reach
Henry and Diane Engelhardt feel blessed to be able to help others, and they have found there is no shortage of good causes to support. One example is the Moondance Cancer Initiative, which Diane helped launch to improve cancer outcomes in Wales after learning of the challenges accessing quality treatments in the country. Henry and Diane prioritize giving to issues they are passionate about such as protecting children from violence, combatting discrimination against women and minorities, and reducing harm to the environment.
Transcript
Being in a position where we can make a difference is such a blessing. We’re very fortunate.
I was at the hairdresser’s, and I was hearing the staff talk about the sister of one of the hairdressers. Her name was Sophie.
She was 17 years old, and Sophie had just been denied life-saving treatment by the health board in Wales because it was too expensive.
A few miles away is the border with England. She could get that treatment in England, but because she didn’t live in England, it was going to cost a lot of money that she would have to pay herself.
I called the girl over and I said, “Set things in motion. You’ve got the funding.” And within the week, she had the operation. This led me to investigate.
How can this treatment be refused? What’s happening in Wales?
And I found out that the cancer outcome in Wales are worse than anywhere else in the UK.
So we set up an initiative, the Moondance Cancer Initiative, to try and facilitate partnership and discoveries and innovations to try and improve cancer outcomes in Wales.
What we’ve learned along the way is that there’s no shortage of good causes.
We try and carry through with our foundation just to try and get out there and make as much impact as we can on a wide variety of causes.
Anything that has to do with violence against children, discrimination against women, against minorities, the harm that is done to our Earth, all these things will trigger a passionate response in me.
And so if we meet organizations that are going to fight against that, then I’m all for supporting them.
This is an exceptional community, and everybody’s doing different things in different ways, and so you can really learn a lot and just absorb a lot. And it is a point of self-reflection. Are we doing what we want to do?
And it’s quite a collection of unique individuals brought together for the single purpose to discuss philanthropy.
We would like to see the reach go to places where philanthropy isn’t so prominent because the world desperately needs it.
