We are looking forward to welcoming supporters to our Centre of Excellence at the University of Plymouth this afternoon (3rd October) helping in the quest to find a cure for all types of brain tumours.
Our guests have been inspired to raise funds to sponsor days of research having lost a loved one to a brain tumour or because they know someone living with one.
Mandy Calaz lost her previously super-fit and healthy husband Mark (pictured below on Mount Toubkal in Morocco) to a glioblastoma (GBM) in July 2021, aged 53. After his diagnosis 18 months earlier, shocked that he had been given at best 18 months to live, the couple started fundraising for Brain Tumour Research.
The pair had met through their volunteering work with the Army Cadet Force (ACF) and enjoyed many adventures together, so it seemed fitting to Mandy to continue Mark’s legacy by setting up M & M Adventures, a Fundraising Group in Mark’s memory, to help find a cure.
Mandy said: “Every day is a struggle since Mark passed away. We loved going out for walks and adventures together. I have so many bittersweet memories of the laughs we used to have.”
Later today Mandy will be placing three tiles on the Wall of Hope dedicated to Mark, representing three days of research she, along with support from friends and family, is sponsoring. Among M & M Adventures’ fundraising initiatives, which have raised more than £13,300 to date, has been a Walk of Hope during which Mandy carried Mark’s ashes, and Mark’s friend from the ACF, Pat Cook, took on Jump for Hope.
Our Plymouth Centre, established in 2014, is one of Europe’s leading research institutes for low-grade brain tumours, proactively working with national and international groups to swiftly translate their research into clinical benefit for patients. Scientists there are working to understand how and why brain tumours initially develop and why they sometimes transform into higher grades with much poorer prognoses for patients.
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Published Thursday 3rd October 2024.