Hello everyone,
Even though we are just about to welcome in a new Prime Minister, a degree of political noise has died down for the summer as the governments at Westminster, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are in recess.
However, that doesn’t mean our campaigning stops for a seasonal break.
While we won’t be sending out weekly updates for the next few weeks, we will be sharing forthcoming events and news of the work we are doing to make a difference for our community.
We are thrilled to announce that we are now strengthened in that work by Dr Matthew Sowemimo, who joined us this week as our Head of Campaigning and Policy.
Holding a doctorate in Politics, Matthew has had a career leading impactful campaigns for some of the biggest charities in the country. It was while working at one of these charities that a close colleague was told they had a brain tumour, so Matthew knows just what such a diagnosis can mean.
Matthew is tasked with leading the development and delivery of impactful, evidence-based public affairs, advocacy and influencing work that raises awareness, influences policy, and mobilises public and stakeholder support for our vision and mission. He will ensure that our campaigning delivers tangible outcomes and delivers on the charity’s campaigning priorities:
- Increased government investment in research
- Enhanced and supportive research environment
- Improved patient access or outcomes including more clinical trials for patients with brain tumours
Matthew said that during his pre-appointment research into our charity, he was impressed by our clarity of message, the absolute focus of our direction and the momentum we have developed.
The past political year has been one of significant achievement and excitement and with Matthew and Sam (see last week’s update) now part of the campaigning team, we are really excited about what the next political year will deliver.
For far too long, Wales has been the only UK nation operating without a long-term, strategic approach for cancer.
That is about to change, and having met Mabon ap Gwynfor the Plaid Cymru Member of the Senedd and the Cabinet Minister for Health and Care in the Welsh Government, on a number of occasions, we fully expect to make our case for measures that will improve outcomes and options for Welsh brain tumour patients to be included in the strategy.
You can read the announcement of the strategy’s development here.
Finally this week, two bits of summer reading. Firstly, we offered comment in a national paper that covered a story about access problems for UK children to a life extending drug aimed at diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma – read more here.
We are an affiliate charity partner of Our Future Health whose goal is to revolutionise the way we fight disease by collecting information from millions of volunteers across the UK. This piece from their website is titled “We shouldn’t neglect rare diseases because they’re rare – this is a call to action for us to do more” and you can read it here.
That’s it for this political year, but we can’t finish without acknowledging the tragic news we received this week about the death of our Patron Theo Burrell.
An extraordinary Patron and deeply valued friend, Theo was a tireless campaigner who challenged inequalities faced by brain tumour patients while raising funds for life-changing research. Diagnosed in 2022, she was determined to use her voice to make a difference for others.
Even during treatment, Theo remained an active campaigner, visiting the Scottish Centre with then Health Secretary Wes Streeting and later supporting the launch of our Manifesto at Holyrood. She will continue to inspire us in our work.
We will return after the recess and, no doubt, alongside a new Prime Minister, there will be new ministers that we need to engage with. That work will really take off at the Party Conferences in the autumn. And when the campaigning updates return in September, we will let you know who we have been talking to and what they said they would do to help us drive things forward.
Wishing you all a peaceful summer and remember to keep following us on social media and checking out our Latest News pages.
Karen, Hugh, Matthew, Sam and Jana.
