'Charity helped me through cancer now I’m its researcher'

Dr Catherine Porter has recently been back to the Little Princess Trust to thank it for its support

A charity that makes wigs for children undergoing cancer treatment has said it is "wonderful" that it is able to support a researcher who benefitted from its help as a teenager.

Dr Catherine Pointer was given a wig by the Little Princess Trust when she had leukaemia in 2009.

She has since gone on to become a cancer researcher at the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC) in Southampton which is funded by the Hereford-based trust.

She said: "We've kind of unknowingly formed a much closer bond over the last few years."

The charity said it was pleased to be able to support her, in a different way, 15 years later.

Its founder, Wendy Tarplee-Morris, said it was a happy coincidence, because it started funding ECMC paediatric trials in 2017 and until recently was unaware Dr Pointer had become a lead scientist for those trials in 2019.

Ms Tarplee-Morris added: “It was a wonderful surprise to hear that Catherine is now working on clinical trials to help young cancer patients.

“Her experiences are incredibly poignant and really drive us on as a charity to do more."

Dr Pointer works at Southampton General Hospital, which is one of the 12 Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres in the UK.

She said: "Straight away at the start of my career I was involved with Little Princess Trust clinical trials."

Dr Pointer was treated for leukaemia as a teenager

Dr Pointer said the real hair wig she received from the trust helped her restore some "normality" while she was undergoing treatment.

Her cancer did not stop her passing her GCSEs and A-levels, and she went on to complete a PhD at University Hospital Southampton.

She said her struggles inspired her to take up medical research and explained: "Cancer presented itself to me as a problem and I wanted to do something about it."

She now works at the same hospital where she was first treated and recently returned to the Little Princess Trust and thanked them for their support.

Dr Pointer said she was now hoping to "form a closer connection" with the trust and had talked to it about the paediatric trials she was working on.