Our Patrons and Celebrities are helping us to help you
Using their credibility and stature, they raise valuable awareness, open doors to new opportunities and connections, and help with our fundraising and campaigning activities. They give up their precious time in order to set an example that people can follow.
Of course, and as you can appreciate, these ambassadors are incredibly busy individuals and we are very careful about the amount of times we pull on their generosity.
We ask our patrons and celebrities to get involved in key national events or to act as a spokesperson on our behalf.
Sarah Beeny
“To have lost my mum thirty years ago, and, more recently, my stepmother, it is disheartening to hear that not much has changed. More research is needed so fewer lives will be devastated by this dreadful disease. I want to see a day when cancer is no longer life-threatening, when the notion that cancer could be a killer is thought absurd.”
Make a donation today and state 'Sarah Beeny' as your reason
My mum died aged 39, when I was just ten years old. First, she fought breast cancer, but it was ultimately a brain tumour that bought her life to a premature end. Then, in 2012, my stepmother was diagnosed with a brain tumour situated behind her eye, which was deemed too tricky to treat. She too lost her life to this cancer.
Mum had her life ahead of her, so many things she should have been doing and looking forward to. It’s hard to think about. As a young girl, I was protected from the harsher realities of my mother’s illness, but I still noticed. I remember how it seemed very quick from when she was first ill, to when she was no longer with us.
I often reflect on the progress that has been made with breast cancer research and treatments, thinking that if Mum had breast cancer now, how much more positive the outlook might be. But I know it is not the same with all cancers and that brain cancer research is a neglected field and desperately underfunded.
I think research is the key. The brain is a complicated organ to treat and there is so much to understand about how it actually works. Without more research, how will brain cancer ever be stopped in its tracks?
To have lost my mum thirty years ago, and, more recently, my stepmother, it is disheartening to hear that not much has changed. Brain tumours remain a forgotten form of cancer, receiving scant attention from potential funders. More research is needed so fewer lives will be devastated by this dreadful disease.
I want my generation to look back in future years and be incredulous that anyone died of cancer. I want to see a day when cancer is no longer life-threatening, when the notion that cancer could be a killer is thought absurd. This is why I am backing Brain Tumour Research and calling for the government to prioritise brain cancer research funding.
Sarah Beeny
March 2017