Roman Abramovich donates £14.5m to Israeli nuclear medicine research centre

Russian-Jewish billionaire businessman Roman Abramovich donated 14.5 million ($20 million) to fund a research centre for nuclear medicine at an Israeli hospital.

Abramovich, who owns Chelsea football club, made the donation to Sheba Medical  Centre at Tel Hashomer, located near Tel Aviv to fund the cutting-edge research centre.

Nuclear medicine can be used for the diagnosis and treatment of a range of diseases including heart disease, cancers, strokes and Alzheimer’s.

Sheba has submitted its permit application to build a new 21,500-square-foot, three-floor, diagnostic and research center for nuclear medicine and molecular imaging.

The entire basement floor will be dedicated to housing a cyclotron, a special nuclear reactor, which will produce small quantities of nuclear isotopes for use in molecular imaging, the medical centre said in its announcement.

Abramovich has donated a total of £41m ($57m) to projects at Sheba, including to the Sheba Cancer and Cancer Research Centres, the Paediatric Middle East Congenital Heart Centre and the Sheba Heart Centre.

In January, the Russian billionaire launched a new campaign at Chelsea football club, aimed at raising awareness of anti-Semitism to its players, fans and staff.

During the match which launched the campaign, which was backed by the World Jewish Congress, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, and a other international Jewish groups, Abramovich dedicated the imitative to victims of the Holocaust.

In 2017, Forbes estimated Abramovich’s net worth at £6.6 billion ($9.1 billion), making him the 139th richest person in the world. He is Russia’s 12^th richest person.