"Since my role as Chair of Friends of Imperial College began in 2021, I have been delighted to welcome so many of you to our events and indeed to get such positive feedback about them.

Before the pandemic, Friends was a charity where ticket revenue for the in-person events combined with the annual Membership subscriptions could maintain Friends. During the pandemic, we were determined to continue providing access to Imperial’s world-class speakers for everyone during this time and changed to live streamed events, but this had an impact on our funds.

We operated a policy of no-charge for virtual events with a mix of events open to all and exclusive events for Members. All were free. As restrictions were extended, we held to that policy but it was at the expense of running down reserves.

Your support has been more important to us than ever as you have helped Friends keep inspiring through education despite the post-pandemic slow growth. We have been able to continue to bring the best, most interesting, most challenging and most important scientific developments from Imperial to the widest possible audience.

To continue running further programmes, we need your support to provide a wealth of knowledge for a further year.

We do hope you can help and donate to Friends, thank you!"