OurBrainBank is a charity supporting people living with glioblastoma, their families and carers. Glioblastoma (GBM), is the most aggressive form of brain cancer. It has a very poor prognosis and the standard treatment hasn’t changed in 20 years. OurBrainBank is working to turn glioblastoma from terminal to treatable, powered by patients.

My wife, Jana Bennett was diagnosed with GBM in 2019. On a work trip to the United States she told me she felt desperately tired and confused. When I met her at Heathrow I immediately knew something was seriously wrong. We rushed to hospital and within a few hours scans had revealed a brain tumour. Shortly afterwards she was given the devastating diagnosis of GBM.

As a family we knew nothing of the disease. We ignored the nurse’s advice not to search the internet and soon, with our two adult children, became a research team talking to experts around the world, investigating trials and new therapies, seeking advice and opinions that were not available from our local hospital. Sadly, despite all that was done, Jana died in January 2022.

She was a hugely successful and television executive both here in the UK and in the US. A warm and generous woman who was much loved and admired. She never lost her spirit and lived as full a life as possible while struggling with the progressive degenerative effects of the tumour. I am determined to raise money to help others facing this daunting and isolating disease.

Later this year, Peter Tenenbaum, the husband of Jane Lush one of Jana’s close BBC colleagues, is undertaking the massive challenge of cycling nearly 1200 miles from London to Valencia to raise funds for OurBrainBank. In 2012, he cycled a thousand miles from London to Barcelona raising £70,000 for two charities, one of which benefited research into low grade gliomas. Now, more than a decade older and at 74 not as spritely as the first time, his determination is higher than ever. He’ll be training hundreds of miles a week to ensure he makes it to Valencia. And he is hoping that this will inspire donations in line with the amount of effort required to accomplish his goal.

Jana was blessed with the love of many dear friends, colleagues and of course us, her family. I am hoping that Peter’s Herculean efforts will raise some serious money towards OurBrainBank’s important aims. In the last two years of her life Jana was a trustee of OurBrainBank, as I am now and I am determined to continue her work for people living with this dissease now and in the future.

Thank you for digging deep to make a real difference, and to honour Jana, a wonderful woman as wife, mother and friend, whose life was rich in love and achievement.

Richard Clemmow