As 2021 ended, I have been so proud of everything our wonderful supporters have helped us to achieve and look forward to 2022 with excitement.
Our campaigning has reached new heights, the 2021 petition gathered 112,260 signatures and the resulting Stop the Devastation report was handed to Prime Minister Boris Johnson by Derek Thomas MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Brain Tumours.
We launched the Pathway to a Cure Inquiry, which we are leading on behalf of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Brain Tumours and during 2022 we intend to change the rhetoric.
We are determined to get the Government’s promised £40 million spent on brain tumour research and identify new funding mechanisms which will lead to an increase in the national investment in brain tumour research to £35 million, bring parity with other cancers such as breast and leukaemia and move us closer to a cure.
With your support our fundraising has also reached new heights – £6 million in 2021.
We have been able to grant more to our Research Centres of Excellence than ever before and are planning to invite applications to establish a further Centre in the summer of 2022.
During 2021, with the support of our Member Charities, we developed a paediatric sub-group at our Queen Mary University of London Centre and all our Research Centres delivered new knowledge and breakthroughs in our understanding. They are moving us closer to improved treatments and ultimately cures for all types of brain tumours.
Researchers funded by your fundraising efforts and donations have delivered world-leading quality research which has been published in high impact journals. Their exciting discoveries could:
- Help to combat paediatric brain tumours, ‘starving’ cancer cells to prevent tumour growth in children
- Pave the way for truly personalised treatments for patients diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM)
- Prevent the need for surgery when identifying different types of meningioma
- Make surgery safer whilst helping neurosurgeons remove brain tumour tissue more effectively
What’s more, your stories have helped us raise greater awareness than ever before and reach new audiences to help us fund the fight.
We hope you will stay with us, be inspired to continue to raise awareness in your communities and help us raise even more in 2022 to get us closer to a network of seven sustainable Brain Tumour Research Centres of Excellence and closer to a cure.
Sue Farrington Smith MBE
Chief Executive
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