The Aspenden Ball is being held on Saturday the 12th October in the village of Aspenden in Hertfordshire. The ball is a local village event that supports three charities, one of which is the Edward Showler Foundation, which is seeking a cure for Clear Cell Sarcoma.

The Edward Showler Foundation was selected as one of the charities in memory of Sian Neale. Sian tragically died at the age of 30 from Clear Cell Sarcoma on the 18th February 2020.

Sian was a local girl who went to school in Buntingford and was well known to many of you.

Sharon Walker is Sian’s mum, Cara Neale is Sian’s sister and Alan Neale is Sian’s Dad.

At Sian’s funeral Alan said;

“If there is anything to take away from this, if there is anything to quell the bitterness and rage, to calm the sense of monumental futility, it is the heart and soul and love that Sian had, and that she instilled into all of us, whether we knew it or not. If we can all be just a little more like Sian, a little more positive, a little more respectful and kind, a little more selfless, life will be just that little bit brighter – brighter for everyone….”

Sarcomas are a type of cancer that affects connective tissue and bone. Clear Cell Sarcoma is a rare sub-type that mainly affects young adults in their 20’s and 30’s. For patients diagnosed with Clear Cell Sarcoma the outlook is poor and there are no effective treatments.

The Edward Showler Foundation is funding a research programme into Clear Cell Sarcoma to better understand the disease and to provide new treatments for patients.

This research is being undertaken at the Cancer Institute at University College London (UCL) and is looking specifically into the genomic causes and drivers of the disease. The team at UCL have sequenced a large number of Clear Cell Sarcoma tissue samples collected from bio-banks across the UK and Europe.

Moving forward the team will increase their understanding of Clear Cell Sarcoma by using a range of the most up to date techniques to analyse the data that has been collected.

This analysis will lead into a drug development phase of the programme using new class of drugs called PROTACs and by testing existing drugs to see whether they can be repurposed to treat Clear Cell Sarcoma.

This will hopefully lead to new an effective treatment path for Clear Cell Sarcoma patients.

Ed’s Foundation is seeking to initially raise £1,500,000 to fund this programme and to date we have raised nearly £900,000.

Please help us meet our target by making a donation.