Local charity Hammer Out joins forces with seven other charities to launch a Brain Tumour awareness month in March. The charities have one vision: to provide information and support for the brain tumour community and to fund research into establishing the causes, advancing treatments and finding a cure.

Brought together by their shared experiences, the charities, Ali’s Dream (Northern Home Counties), Andrea’s Gift (Yorkshire), Brain and Spine Foundation (National), Brain Tumour Action (Scotland), Brain Tumour Foundation (Derbyshire & London), Brainwaves (Northern Ireland), Ellie Savage Memorial Trust (East Anglia) and Hammer Out (South West) are organising fundraising activities up and down the country, engaging their local press and radio stations to promote awareness.

John Bercow Shadow Secretary of State for International Development touched by the plight of families who have lost children to this dreadful disease, has committed to stage a debate in the House of Commons to raise the issues and seek to establish a screening programme. Support is being sought from other all party MP’s across the UK.

16,000 people a year are diagnosed with a brain tumour, 6,400 (40%) of which are primary tumours originating in the brain while the remaining are secondary tumours which have spread to the brain from primary tumours at other sites of the body.  Indeed around 25% of all cancers spread to the brain.

The prognosis for children diagnosed with a brain tumour is poor, with only 20% surviving beyond five years.  Adults and children who do survive are left with side effects which affect them for the rest of their lives.

Families and friends who lose a loved one are never the same again.

The apparent low incidence means the brain tumour community are poorly supported and funding for support and research is largely dependent on charities.

There are over 120 different types of Brain Tumours which present themselves in different ways.  With this diverse range of symptoms, diagnosis can take weeks and possibly months causing undue stress on the patient and their family and friends and delaying the necessary treatment.

Once diagnosed, it is difficult to find information and discover the options available.  There is also a lack of specialised support in the medical and caring professions. What’s more at a time when quality of life becomes uppermost in a families mind, the financial resources to go on special holidays or simply pay the burden of increased insurances such an illness attracts, adds further stress.

The charities seek to raise public awareness, and increase funding to provide:

• Education for GP’s and to establish a screening programme
• Information for patients and carers
• Specialised professional support particularly adult and paediatric neuro-oncology nurses
• Support for patients and carers, emotional, physical and financial
• Research into discovering the causes, advancing treatments and finding a cure