My name is Nancy Carter.  I am a 33 year old mother of 2. In April 2005 I was diagnosed with a grade 3 malignant brain tumour (BT), called an Oligodendroglioma. It was the size of a golf ball and after having brain surgery, chemo-radiation for 7 weeks and six months on a triple dose of Temozolomide chemotherapy, I am now in my fourth year of remission. This is quite a miracle and I count my blessings every day.  However I am one of the lucky ones as treatment allocation is a postcode lottery and research and funding for BT treatment is very poor in comparison to other higher profile cancers like breast and bowel. 

With this in mind, I have chosen to help raise funds for the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust (SDBTT) www.braintumourtrust.co.uk . It is a leading edge charity and one that is making a real difference. It is bringing together top academics from across the international field of neuroscience. The Samantha Dickson Brain Cancer Unit will be the UK’s first ‘centre of excellence’ dedicated to the disease and will be able to compete for funding at the highest level. It’s envisaged that this partnership will provide the blueprint for similar centres around the UK, with the charity hoping to raise funds for two or more over the next five years.

This is why we need to raise funds for this unit.

·         More children now die from brain tumours than any other childhood cancer

·         Sadly 3,400 people lose their lives to brain tumours each year

·         In adults, with a malignant brain tumour, the statistic is even more tragic with only 14% living longer than 5 years

·         40% of all cancer deaths in children are from brain tumours

·         The number of people dying from brain tumours has increased over the last decade by approximately 2% per year

·         6,500 people are diagnosed each year with a primary brain tumour

·         On average it takes longer to diagnose a child with a brain tumour in the UK than in North America and a number of other European countries.  The principal cause of delay in diagnosis is the failure by front-line health professionals to include brain tumours in the differential diagnosis.

·         The average years of life lost (AYLL) to brain tumours is the highest of any cancer at over 20 years.

On a positive note I would like to introduce two very important people to me who will be running in The Flora London Marathon on behalf of SDBTT. The first is Nickie Thomas who is also a mum of two and a close friend for many years. She has great running experience and has many fantastic fundraising ideas for The Brain Dames.  The second person running is Sarah Austin who is also another mother of two! Without her friendship these past years I simply would not have been able to cope with what has happened to me. She is simply an incredible friend and to my horror is also a very accomplished runner.  Both Nickie and Sarah have competed in many and varied runs, but this is the first time they will be competing together in London.

It is going to be very disconcerting watching my friends getting fitter and faster as the months go by, whilst I come up with every excuse in the book as to why I cannot go cycle training  every week. Running and I have a relationship akin to oil and water! So whilst these two ladies do all the hard work, I am going to muster as much charm as possible to fundraise on “our” behalf.

Together we are “The Brain Dames” and we thank you in advance for any contribution you can make to this very worthy cause and appreciate your help even more in these difficult financial times. Nobody enjoys being a statistic, sadly I am one. However the more money we raise means the statistics will improve and give real hope to people in my situation.

Thank you so very much

Nancy, Nickie and Sarah

“The Brain Dames”

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