Brain cancer funding petition backed by girl's bereaved parents

Brooke died on 14 March 2020, she was 11

The parents of an 11-year-old girl who died with an aggressive brain tumour are backing a campaign to set aside £35m for research each year.

Brooke, from Southampton, was diagnosed with brain cancer in April 2019. She died 11 months later.

Her parents, Dan and Lisa, raised more than £200,000 to pay for monthly trips to New York to pick up chemotherapy medication and for private treatment.

They are backing a petition calling on the government to bring in the annual spend by 2028. The government said it was "focused on fighting cancer on all fronts".

Dan said: "As a family, we believe everything we did helped Brooke. We had 11 months from when she was diagnosed to when she passed away.

"I can't fault the compassion and support from the NHS staff. However, I am angry.

"Angry that decades have passed and still people are dying from this disease, and yet treatment options for brain tumours aren't keeping up to date with innovations in other cancers.

"The government must recognise brain tumour research as a critical priority. This increase in research investment would put it in line with the spend on cancers of breast, bowel and lung, as well as leukaemia."

(L-R) Brooke's sister, Amelia, Brooke, Dan and Lisa

The petition, set up by Brain Tumour Research, hopes to reach 100,000 signatures by 31 October to prompt a parliamentary debate.

In 2018, then Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed the government would double investment to £40m for research to tackle the disease.

The funding was announced in honour of Dame Tessa Jowell, who died from brain cancer that year.

To date, it has spend £15m, according to Brain Tumour Research.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “All our sympathies are with Brooke’s loved ones and we remain focused on fighting cancer on all fronts – prevention, diagnosis, treatment, research and funding – so we can deliver the best possible care to patients.

“We want the UK to lead the way in delivering the next generation of treatments and cures and in March we delivered a £10 million state-of-the-art facility to develop cuttinge-edge technology so we can better treat cancers such as diffuse midline-glioma.

“Alongside this we are taking a vaccine taskforce style approach for cancer research to develop new immune-based cancer therapies, including cancer vaccines, which are targeted to a patient’s specific cancer.”