After having heard that his wife’s having breast cancer increases the chances for his daughters to develop the terrible condition, Mike Dewey (48) decided to put together the Victory Project.

His idea is to offer $1 billion to whoever can discover a cure for breast cancer. Obviously enough, as Mr. Mike Dewey’s name is not mentioned in any of the Forbes charts or in any other similar publications, he cannot afford to honour the promise on his own. He has started a campaign that has so far brought in actual donations totalling $90,000 as well as pledges from various businesses adding up to $22 million. Although $1 billion is still quite far away, as he is driven by very intense feelings, Mike Dewey is very likely to eventually reach his goal.

He considers that the code for a new type of philanthropy has been "cracked," as people are always responsive to economic stimuli. Once the cure is found, he intends to keep the intellectual rights for it, but also to openly offer it, free of charge.

Not everyone shares Mike Dewey’s enthusiasm. Arthur Caplan, chair of the department of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, considers the plan to be naive. He went on to say that although some people think that anything can be solved given the right incentive, things are a bit more complicated than that. For solving a problem such as that pursued by the project, "the right luck, the right breakthrough and the right science" would be needed.

Mike Dewey is keeping his hopes up and is expecting more and more people and organizations to be joining in on his work.