Research is our only hope – young couple determined to help find a cure for brain tumours

A young Middleton couple who are fundraising to help find a cure for brain tumours say research is their only hope.

Neil Taylor, aged 33, has undergone surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy after being diagnosed with a grade 3 astrocytoma brain tumour last year. He and his wife Alex were recently married and looking forward to the birth of their first child, daughter Annabelle, now one, when they were given the life-changing news.

Now they have launched a new fundraising group Neil’s Appeal, which will work with the Brain Tumour Research charity, to fund research into the disease which kills more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer. They want to raise awareness of brain tumours and the fact that, historically, just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to the devastating disease.

The couple are inviting people to join them and their supporters – known as #TaylorsWarriors – at a launch party for their fundraising group from 7.30pm on Saturday 17 November at Lock 91, Manchester. They will be talking about their experiences and there will also be chance for people to find out more about Brain Tumour Research and its work.

Alex said: “We have had such great support from our friends, family and the community since Neil’s diagnosis and we want to celebrate what we have achieved so far and explain to people why we are setting up Neil’s Appeal.

“Neil is just 33, a young dad with so much to live for, yet research into this horrible disease is so poorly funded. No-one knows what the future will bring but the truth is that research is our only hope.

“I am so proud of Neil. Even before his surgery he was raising money – it’s so typical of him that, even when he was going through the early stages of his diagnosis, he was still thinking of others and wanting to raise awareness of something he knew very little about.”

 

 

Neil, a franchise supervisor at McDonald’s, completed a 12-month course of chemotherapy in July. He was first taken ill in late December 2016 and was given the devastating diagnosis two months later. One minute they were sharing their baby news and the next they were telling people Neil had a brain tumour and needed surgery.

He said: “I am determined to do what I can and not just for me but for other families who are affected. We are hoping to raise £10,000 for Brain Tumour Research. It is a cause which is so important to us and we are committed to doing all we can in order to raise as much money as we can to improve treatments and help find a cure.”

Brain Tumour Research funds sustainable research at Research Centres of Excellence in the UK; it also campaigns for the Government and the larger cancer charities to invest more in research into brain tumours in order to speed up new treatments for patients and, ultimately, to find a cure.

The charity is calling for an annual spend of £35m in order to improve survival rates and patient outcomes in line with other cancers such as breast cancer and leukaemia.