Our Patrons and Celebrities

3 min read

Our Patrons and Celebrities are helping us to help you

Using their credibility and stature, they raise valuable awareness, open doors to new opportunities and connections, and help with our fundraising and campaigning activities. They give up their precious time in order to set an example that people can follow.

Of course, and as you can appreciate, these ambassadors are incredibly busy individuals and we are very careful about the amount of times we pull on their generosity.

We ask our patrons and celebrities to get involved in key national events or to act as a spokesperson on our behalf.

Theo Burrell

Antiques Roadshow expert Theo Burrell was diagnosed with a glioblastoma (GBM) in June 2022 after suffering from migraines for six months.

Since then, she has undertaken numerous media appearances and participated in our Walk of Hope in September 2023 to raise awareness of brain tumours.

Theo visited our Centre of Excellence at Queen Mary University of London, where she met scientists working at the forefront of the fight to find a cure for GBM and other brain tumours.

We are delighted Theo has become a Patron to officially support the charity and we look forward to working with her.


Caprice Bourret

Supermodel, actress, entrepreneur and mother Caprice Bourret became involved with Brain Tumour Research following her shock meningioma diagnosis, and subsequent successful surgical intervention, in Spring 2017.

In March 2018, Caprice was the figurehead for our Wear A Hat Day campaign and she has undertaken, and continues to undertake, numerous media and ambassadorial appearances in support of our work.

Hugely motivated to make a difference for those diagnosed with a brain tumour, Caprice has seen our research at first hand and has also made considerable personal investment into funding vital research.

We are delighted she has chosen to stand alongside us and look forward to a game changing collaboration.

Danny Clarke

Celebrity Supporter Danny Clarke, known to BBC TV viewers as The Instant Gardener, is the face of our Wear a Flower Week campaign.  In 2018 Danny asked people to take a leaf from his book and to embrace their love of colour by wearing buttonholes and donating to the cause.

Danny‘s sister Margot McLellan died of a brain tumour, leaving a husband and young daughter.  “I want to do what I can to help the charity Brain Tumour Research so patients like Margot aren’t left with zero treatment options and their families aren’t forced to watch them suffer like she did.”

Debbie McGee

Celebrity Supporter “It is important to me to share Paul’s story because I want to help other people. Paul was one of those people who genuinely lit up a room when he walked in and I want people to know how this cruel disease stripped him of everything within a few short weeks to the point where he collapsed on the bathroom floor and I held him as he wept and asked me what was happening to him..

Denise Van Outen

Celebrity Supporter "The charity Brain Tumour Research is massively underfunded compared with a lot of other charities. Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killers of children and adults under the age of 40. It's about myself being a mum. It's about the next generation, you need to protect them". 


Garry Christian

Celebrity Supporter “I’m really delighted to be associated with Brain Tumour Research and their Wear A Hat Day campaign – I feel for every family going through the same turmoil at the hands of this vicious disease that my family did and hope as many of you as possible will join me in wearing a hat and raising funds and awareness for this vital cause.”


Ian Reddington

Ian is known to millions of TV viewers and is the only actor to create major roles in two most popular soaps Tricky Dicky, Albert Square’s lothario Market Manager in Eastenders and Vernon the hapless drummer in Coronation Street. Very different roles but both of which captured the attention of the public.



Jacqui Oatley MBE

Celebrity Supporter “Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer. They are indiscriminate and can strike at any time of life. I’m supporting Wear A Hat Day because I know the devastation brain tumours cause. Help us fund the fight. Together we will find a cure.”


John Newman

Celebrity Supporter "I was shaking I was so scared when I was told I had a brain tumour and it was a neurosurgeon who saved my life. To keep improving outcomes for others at my age that are being diagnosed with a brain tumour, we must seriously increase the funding for the research into this disease. I am delighted to bring awareness of Wear A Hat Day to all my fans and am asking everyone to please get involved make a donation to Brain Tumour Research. Let’s fund this fight together!”


Kady McDermott

“Nan was the rock of our family…by the time they confirmed it was a brain tumour, there was nothing anyone could do…things happened so quickly. As soon as we got the diagnosis, she went downhill. It was like Nan just wasn’t there anymore. She couldn’t even talk really.”


Linda Robson

“I’m delighted to be able to help such a wonderful and passionate charity. My closest cousin Jackie had been diagnosed with a brain tumour and I’m amazed by the lack of funding being made available for this terrible and life-threatening disease, so I’m doing what I can to help raise awareness and increase support for Brain Tumour Research and Wear A Hat Day."



Mark Hunter MBE

Olympic champion Mark Hunter MBE joined Brain Tumour Research in 2013 as Patron.

Mark won an Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Great Britain's first ever lightweight rowing medal, along with his partner Zac Purchase, and went on to win silver at the London 2012 Olympics.


Philip Treacy OBE

The most celebrated hat designer of the age Philip Treacy became a patron of Brain Tumour Research in 2011.


Sarah Beeny

“To have lost my mum thirty years ago, and, more recently, my stepmother, it is disheartening to hear that not much has changed. More research is needed so fewer lives will be devastated by this dreadful disease. I want to see a day when cancer is no longer life-threatening, when the notion that cancer could be a killer is thought absurd.”

Sheila Hancock DBE

“No-one can prepare you the news of a loved one being ill; when my grandson Jack was diagnosed with a brain tumour at the age of four, it was devastating for us all. Jack is now an accomplished young man and together we want to help raise awareness. Some 16,000 people are diagnosed with a brain tumour every year - more funding is urgently needed so that one day we can find a cure."


Stephen Jones OBE

“I find the situation with the underfunding of brain tumour research really surprising. Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, but don’t get anything like the research funding they need. It’s shocking. Whenever I tell people, they can’t believe it.” 


John Bercow

John resigned his role as a Patron in 2019.

He was elected as the 157th Speaker of the House of Commons on 22nd June 2009 and was a Member of Parliament for Buckingham from 1997 to 2019.

John was alerted to the plight of brain tumours in January 2004, by a constituent and was particularly touched by the stories of children. "There can surely be few more tragic or heartbreaking experiences than for a parent to discover that his or her child has a brain tumour."

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