Santa Claus is helping to fund the fight against brain tumours this Christmas as donations from his Parkway Shopping Centre grotto go towards the Brain Tumour Research charity.

Zoe France, Centre Manager at Parkway Shopping Centre, has enlisted Santa Claus’ help to support research into the disease after losing her sister-in-law, Janine Skeen, in September 2017. The Santa’s Grotto at the shopping centre in Coulby Newham provides a free token gift for children and 50% of the donations made at the event will go towards Brain Tumour Research. 

Janine began losing her vision in August 2016. She visited the opticians and was subsequently diagnosed with a highly aggressive brain tumour known as a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Janine underwent surgery and treatment but passed away in September 2017, on her 45th birthday. She left her husband Ashley and 14-year-old daughter Georgia.

Zoe said: “Although we offer the grotto as a free experience for local families, I wanted to do something to support the charity this Christmas so half of the donations at the grotto will go towards Brain Tumour Research. What happened to Janine was awful and it opened my eyes to how devastating brain tumours are. The least I can do is try and raise some much-needed funds for research in the community where I’m sure there are many others who have been affected by this awful disease.”

The Santa’s Grotto is open every Saturday and Sunday and every Thursday and Friday night until Sunday 23rd December. 

Matthew Price, community fundraising manager at Brain Tumour Research in the North East, said: “We’re extremely grateful to Zoe and the rest of the team at Parkway Shopping Centre for supporting us this Christmas. For families like Janine’s, Christmas can be an especially difficult time, and her story reminds us that we cannot allow this situation to continue.

“Brain tumours are indiscriminate; they can affect anyone at any age. What’s more, they kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, yet, historically just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to a cure.”

Brain Tumour Research funds sustainable research at dedicated Centres of Excellence in the UK; it also campaigns for the Government and the larger cancer charities to invest more in research into brain tumours in order to speed up new treatments for patients and, ultimately, to find a cure. The charity is calling for an annual spend of £35m in order to improve survival rates and patient outcomes in line with other cancers such as breast cancer and leukaemia.

For further information, please contact:
Farel James at Brain Tumour Research on 07592 502708 or Farel.James@braintumourresearch.org

Notes to Editors

Brain Tumour Research is the only national charity in the UK dedicated to raising funds for continuous and sustainable scientific research into brain tumours, and we are a leading voice calling for greater support and action for research into what scientists are calling the last battleground against cancer.

We are building a network of experts in sustainable research at dedicated Centres of Excellence whilst influencing the Government and larger cancer charities to invest more nationally.

We welcome recent funding announcements for research into brain tumours from the UK Government and Cancer Research UK – £65 million pledged over the next five years. However, this potential funding of £13 million a year comes with a catch – money will only be granted to quality research proposals and, due to the historic lack of investment, there may not be enough of these applications that qualify for grants from this pot.

We want research funding parity with breast cancer and leukaemia. We are calling for a £30-35 million investment every year for research into brain tumours in order to fund the basic research groundwork needed to accelerate the translation from laboratory discoveries into clinical trials and fast-track new therapies for this devastating disease.

The Brain Tumour Research charity is a powerful campaigning organisation and represents the voice of the brain tumour community across the UK. We helped establish and provide the ongoing Secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Brain Tumours (APPGBT). We are supporting the crucial APPGBT 2018 Inquiry into the economic and social impacts of brain tumours and will publish their report in the autumn. We are also a key influencer in the development strategy for the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission. 

Key statistics on brain tumours:

• Brain tumours are indiscriminate; they can affect anyone at any age
• Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer
• Historically, just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to brain tumours
• In the UK, 16,000 people each year are diagnosed with a brain tumour
• Brain tumours kill more children than leukaemia
• Brain tumours kill more men under 45 than prostate cancer
• Brain tumours kill more women under 35 than breast cancer
• Less than 20% of those diagnosed with a brain tumour survive beyond five years compared with an average of 50% across all cancers

Please quote Brain Tumour Research as the source when using this information. Additional facts and statistics are available from our website. We can also provide case studies and research expertise for the media.