A woman whose husband penned 30 years’ worth of birthday cards to their twin daughters before he died from a brain tumour is backing our petition to increase research funding. 

Following his diagnosis with a tennis ball-size astrocytoma in 2015, Nick Keenan underwent two debulking surgeries, radiotherapy, infusion and oral chemotherapy, prescription cannabinoids and a number of natural remedies. Sadly, he died in November 2020, nine months after being told his tumour had developed into a glioblastoma (GBM). 

Nick was just 34 when he passed away, leaving his wife Victoria and twin daughters, Rose and Sophia, who were just 17 months old at the time. Touchingly, he wrote his daughters birthday cards for the first 30 years of their lives so he could “be with them in spirit as they celebrated their birthdays without him”. 

Now, Victoria is sharing her husband’s story to encourage people to sign our petition to “give young families, like mine, the chance of a future together”. 

She said: “Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and young people under the age of 40, yet they have received just 1% of the national spend on cancer research since records began in 2002. This is tragic and has to change. Brain cancer is such a complex and difficult cancer to treat and the only way to improve treatment options, or to find a cure, is through research. We, therefore, owe it to our loved ones to sign this petition.” 

Our petition is calling on the Government to ring-fence £110 million of current and new funding to kick-start an increase in the national investment in brain tumour research to £35 million a year by 2028. 

Sign now to help us achieve our goal of 100,000 signatures in the hope of prompting a parliamentary debate: www.braintumourresearch.org/petition 

Sophia and Rose with their fourth birthday cards from Nick 

Related reading

• Campaign with us