Widow hopes £1m brain tumour donation ensures husband's legacy

Mary Scott lost her husband to a brain tumour in 2020

A widow hopes her husband's death will not have been in vain after donating £1m to fund a new cancer research centre.

Mary Scott, 71, from Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire, gave the money to Brain Tumour Research (BTR) after losing her husband to brain cancer.

"I am very fortunate to be able to donate this money... I want people to have hope," she said.

The money has been used to establish a new £2.5m centre of excellence.

Her husband, Mike Scott, 69, was diagnosed with a grade 4 glioblastoma (GBM), an incurable and fast-growing tumour, in September 2019.

Mrs Scott described how upsetting her husband's illness had been for him and his family.

"To see the one you love suffer get confused, fall over - a strong, able, capable man reduced to someone struggling to get up off the floor, struggling to find a word - is absolutely devastating.

"The life that you thought you had is ripped from you."

Mary Scott has donated £1m to charity Brain Tumour Research

Plans were being made for Mr Scott to spend his final months at home, when he collapsed at a family barbecue. He died several days later in June 2020.

Mrs Scott's donation to BTR has enabled the charity to build a new childhood cancer research centre in London, and she is hoping it will make a difference to people's lives.

"Mike loved babies...so I thought [the money should go to] research going into brain tumours in children, because to lose an adult is bad enough, but to lose a child who hasn't lived is the worst thing.

"If this money can go towards a centre that can perhaps come up with a eureka moment I always call it, then his life hasn't been in vain and his legacy will continue."

The couple had been married for nearly 47 years at the time of Mr Scott's death

The new centre has been opened at the Sutton campus of The Institute for Cancer Research.

It will focus on identifying new treatments for various brain tumours in children and young adults.

Mrs Scott said: "He'd be very happy that something positive is being done and giving people hope," she said.

"That's what this is all about."