What we are doing

Through winter 2024 and spring 2025, I will be completing three charity events with a mixture of friends and family in aid of the Brain Tumour Charity! The first event is the 'Santa in the City' walk/run in Tunbridge Wells on Saturday 7th December 2024, where I will be completing a 3km course with my Mum, Sinead Hemsley, dressed in Santa suits! The second event is the 'London Winter Walk', where my friends and I will walk a half marathon in London on Sunday 26th January 2025. The third and final event is the 'Twilight Walk', where I will walk 10km in London on Saturday 22nd March 2025 with a team of Girlguiding Rangers.

For this event, Sinead Hemsley and I will dress up in Santa suits and participate in a jog/walk around our local park. The route is 3km around Grosvenor and Hilbert Park in Tunbridge Wells, and we will be running with lots of other fundraisers dressed as Santa too! We will begin the run at 2pm by the Hub, so come and cheer us on and please share and support our online fundraiser! This is the first of the three walking challenges I will be completing for the Brain Tumour Charity this winter/spring.

The Cause & My Story

88,000 people in the UK are living with a brain tumour, with brain tumours being the biggest cancer killer of children and young adults in the UK (ages 5 to 24). Yet only 3.2% of all funding for cancer research goes to researching brain tumours. The Brain Tumour Charity aims to change this, funding life-changing research.

My name is Lily, and I was diagnosed with a Craniopharyngioma (a type of brain tumour) in 2012 when I was 6 years old. It was attached to my Pituitary Gland and was pressing on my optic nerve. Surgery was successful, and my brain tumour was removed through my nose, bringing my Pituitary Gland with it. As a result of the tumour, I lost 3/4 of my vision, becoming completely blind in my right eye and having tunnel vision in my left eye. I also now lack a pituitary gland, so have to take hormone replacements for this. This experience was devastating and completely changed my life. However, I was incredibly lucky, and I will be forever grateful for the research that made my surgery possible.

Since 2018, I have been fundraising with my friends and family for the Brain Tumour Charity, raising a total of just under £5,500! I am now 18, and this winter I hope to raise more money for this amazing charity than we have done in the past. Across the three events I will walk 34km for charity with my amazing friends and family, and I hope to raise a great amount of money for the amazing Brain Tumour Charity!

If you are able to, please donate, because this is an amazing cause and the Brain Tumour Charity has saved so many lives, and will continue to research until we find a cure. If you can’t donate, please share to spread awareness!