Earlier this week Microsoft billionaire, Bill Gates, visited the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) with the Chancellor, George Osborne, to announce the new £1bn Ross Fund to combat malaria. The fund is named after Sir Ronald Ross who was the first Briton to be awarded the Nobel Prize — for his discovery that mosquitos transmit malaria. Ross was one of the founders of the world-renowned Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The present Director of the school is Professor Janet Hemingway,CBE,FRS, who was recently a speaker at the Tattenhall Business Club.

Joining the tour around the LSTM were Liverpool defender, Kolo Toure, and Tattenhall resident, Martin Cooke, who has been involved with LSTM for many years. Kolo Toure, who comes from the Ivory Coast, has suffered from malaria several times and was most recently struck down by it in 2014 when he didn't know whether he would recover in time to play in the World Cup.

Malaria is the cause of around 12000 deaths every week — more than have been killed by Ebola in the last 21 months. Bill Gates hopes that, with the help of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, malaria will be eradicated in his lifetime.