Urgent Funding Needed For Brain Tumour Research
A 24 year old from Newton Aycliffe hopes she can save more lives before she dies from a terminal brain tumour.
Anna Swabey was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour in January and was told she had three years to live.
She’s urging people to back a petition calling for more funding for research.
Brain tumours kill more children and adults under 40 than any other cancer, but it gets only 1% of national cancer research funding.
Experts claim that at this rate it could take 100 years to catch up with developments in other diseases.
Anna said:
“I tried not to dwell on feeling sorry for myself and thinking ‘Why me?’ Because no one will ever know why it happened to me… I try to turn that question into ‘Why me? Because I’m going to do something about it!’”
25 year old Stu Ridley died from a brain tumour in July.
Stu’s mum Celia says they've had monumental support all the way through his battle.
Thousands joined a support group on social media and around £250,000 has been raised for his charities.
She said:
“There an awful lot of good coming from Stu and the way he handled his illness. We were very very lucky to have that quality time from the February when he was diagnosed until he died in July. We’re very thankful for that.”
“There was no way that we could have expected it. He was incredibly fit; he was training on a Tuesday night, training on a Thursday night, playing on a Saturday and working full time as well.”
“It is particularly scary; the brain tumours seem to be on the rise. You just never expect that it’s going to happen to you, it’s just cruelty.”
You can view the petition, set up by Maria Lester who lost her brother to the cancer, here: