Award-winning operatic tenor and musical theatre star Alfie Boe OBE is today (Friday 24th May) announced as our new Patron.
The multi-platinum selling recording artist, who embarks on a solo UK tour later this month, was just 23 when he lost his father Alfred to the disease in 1997. Describing his father as “fun and gentle”, Alfie said he was “proud and honoured” to be working with Brain Tumour Research, with whom he wants to “help secure more investment from the Government” after being “appalled just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease".
Alfie, who supported our #ShineALight and Wear A Hat Day campaigns during Brain Tumour Awareness Month in March, said: “I feel very proud to be a Patron of Brain Tumour Research, but it makes me angry that, in all this time, the situation for patients like Dad hasn’t really changed. I feel incredibly sad to think that families are still facing this awful diagnosis and, nearly 30 years later, there have been so few advances in treatment.
“There is no doubt in my mind that research into brain tumours should be a priority and I am ashamed to think that charities are having to do so much in this area. The Government should be doing so much more.
“On a personal level I am also doing this in memory of Dad, and I hope that, in sharing my story, it will help other people who are struggling to come to terms with loss and perhaps even bring them some comfort to know they are not alone.”
Headaches and eyesight problems led Alfred (pictured below with his wife and Alfie) to visit his GP, who was “very dismissive” and prescribed antibiotics for flu. A week later, during an optician appointment, Alfred was told to go to hospital urgently for a brain scan because it was thought he had suffered a stroke.
Alfie said: “The scan, which was to alter all of our lives forever, took place at Royal Preston Hospital. The doctors explained Dad had a brain tumour. It was aggressive, inoperable and there was nothing they could do.”
Ten months later, Alfred died in Alfie’s arms.
Alfie said: “It will always be a great regret that Dad never got to hear any of my records, to come to one of my concerts or to see me in Les Misérables. But my biggest regret is that Dad didn’t get to meet my children. My son is named after him just as I was.”
On Thursday 30th May, Alfie kicks off his 18-date UK tour at the Regent Theatre in Ipswich. Brain Tumour Research’s fundraising team will be at his concerts, including the final night at Blackpool Opera House on Friday 5th July, collecting donations from concert-goers which will help fund our work to find a cure for all types of brain tumours.
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