If you are reading this, I’d just like to start by thanking you for taking the time to do so.

In November 2019, my friend and Janes Partner Stephen was diagnosed with Stage 4 Glioblastoma, an incurable brain cancer. 

Jane has given me these words for the fund raising effort .........

Stephen had collapsed whilst working in Israel and underwent a major operation to remove a large brain tumour before returning home at the end of November last year. The surgeons were brave and skilful, but, unfortunately Glioblastoma does not give up so easily and, as you may suspect, the story doesn't end there.  Gliobastoma is an extremely aggressive form of cancer which, even when the tumour has been removed,  has a horrible habit of growing back and we are currently facing a grim prognosis for Stephen.  As a family, we want to let Glioblastoma know that we do not give up easily either, however, facing this battle slap bang in the middle of a global pandemic, means that our fight is even harder than first imagined.  The tools to fight Glioblastoma have always been limited, however, COVID presents us with unique challenges, further restricting our options and our ability to travel more widely in the world to access potential alternative treatments. 

So, you can imagine the excitement and renewed hope for us when we learned that, as part of the fight against Glioblastoma, there is currently  a proposal to conduct an advanced immunotherapy trial at Ninewells Hospital in our home town of Dundee.  Dr Kismet Ibraham, Consultant Neurosurgeon is planning to bring one of the world’s most advanced immunotherapy trials to Scotland and he will be recruiting a minimum of ten individuals with a Glioblastoma diagnosis to be part of the trial.    The vaccine is from Duke University, America where it has shown real promise and positive impact in treating patients with Glioblastoma.  

In order to support the trial, there is a need for significant funding and, through the Funding Neuro appeal, Dr Kismet is in the process of raising the £500,000 required to make the trial viable.  We want to do all we can to help him reach this target so that our family, and families like ours might have at least some chance of a future together

Currently, Stephen is feeling tired but is well and continues to fight back, however, time is not on our side. We are desperate for Doctor Kismet to be in a position to begin this trial so that Stephen can become a participant, giving some hope to him and all who love him in what has felt like a pretty hopeless situation so far. Stephen has so many people to live for and anyone who knows Stephen will know the kind, generous fun  person that he is.  We know that times are hard for everyone right now but we love him so much and can’t imagine our lives without him which is why we are reaching out and asking for your help today as funds are critical to this clinical trial going ahead. 

 Jane is going to kick off my fund raising with a half marathon run on 4th October (Virtual due to COVID) . If anyone would like to support me by making a donation to Funding Neuro in support of the Ninewells trial it would be greatly appreciated.

Please take some time to learn more about it and click the link below to get more information about Gliobastoma and the trial that we are fundraising for. If anyone is in a position to donate there is a link to funding neuro on the page.

https://www.fundingneuro.com/glioblastoma/

We are really hopeful that Stephen can  raise a significant amount of money to support the trial but we think it is unrealistic to believe he can do all of this alone so the other important aspect of our campaign is to raise awareness hoping that other families like ours will pull together to meet the overall fundraising amount of £500k to allow the trial to go ahead. Time is a factor in this and there is the possibility that Stephen himself will not benefit, however, we believe that if this is the case our fundraising efforts will not be wasted and we will have contributed to other families benefiting and hopefully making progress to finding a cure for this horrible disease. Even if you cannot donate we would appreciate your help in spreading the word by sharing information about this campaign.

Thank you so much

Jane and Stephen