Thank you for visiting this fundraising page.

Please see below a message from Janet:

I'm a 41 year old mother of teenage triplet girls, who are the centre of my universe.  I'm an active, busy person:  I commute, work full time, regularly run & am learning to play the piano.  Life has been good.  I've recently been devastated by my husband’s diagnosis of a diffuse astrocytoma glioma - an invasive brain tumour that there is no cure for.

Since the initial diagnosis, Fergus (my husband) has been through 2 awake craniotomy operations in 4 months.  That’s brain surgery that takes place while the patient is awake:  it gives better outcomes as the patient can be assessed to check brain function in real time & prevent removal of areas of the brain that are in use.

Despite this, following surgery, Fergus spent 5 weeks in hospital undergoing intensive physiotherapy & neurological rehabilitation, learning to walk again, having been left with some neurological deficit in his motor skills.

His tumour is not behaving in a predictable way, and we are awaiting more scan results before a treatment plan can be made.  It is likely to include radiotherapy and chemotherapy. 

We have been told that we will not grow old together.

That’s where BTRS’s research comes in.  Brain Tumour Research & Support is a charity that funds cutting edge research at the University of Leeds.  The research focuses on developing a genetic understanding of why some tumours resist treatments.  It looks in detail at how tumour cells repair themselves following radiotherapy & chemotherapy drugs, how they may change their behaviour following treatment and how it may be possible to use drugs or other bio-theraputic agents to reverse the survival mechanisms that they use.

Fergus’s consultant surgeon, Mr Corns, is directly involved in this research & has indicated that in his view, this is the most promising research in the UK that could help Fergus and many others like him to achieve better outcomes in the future.

I am deeply touched by the efforts made to raise funds for this charity.  I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so generous with both your time and your money.

Janet Hadley
https://tumoroustales.home.blog/