“Nothing short of remarkable”

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It was a story which captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

Claudia Burkill’s courageous, three-year battle against a rare brain tumour via her Claudia’s Cause Facebook page raised awareness of brain tumours, as well as raising funds for a number of charities, including a staggering £250,000 for the University’s Children's Brain Tumour Research Centre (CBTRC), which treated Claudia during her illness.

Claudia’s mum Andrea Burkill, said: “Since learning of Claudia’s illness, we have been driven, as a family to raise awareness and equally to raise funding into the research of children’s brain tumours. There is an enormous lack of funding and understanding into how cancer research funding is distributed that once we learnt about the massive shortfall, we knew we had to do something.”

Claudia was just five years old when she was diagnosed with the incredibly rare and extremely aggressive Metastatic PineoBlastoma tumour in June 2011. Doctors gave her just six weeks to live.

Despite the poor prognosis, Claudia fought bravely against her illness, defying the odds at every step. Sadly though, Claudia passed away in October 2014 due to complications from her treatment.

On what would have been her 10th birthday our researchers gave thanks to Claudia’s fundraising.

Professor David Walker, Co-Director of the CBTRC, said:

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The money raised by Claudia and her family will have a huge impact into research into the diagnosis and treatment of brain tumours in children. Claudia’s Cause has helped to buy new equipment for experiments, providing vital technology needed to advance our medical knowledge. It has also supported the Headsmart: Be Brain Aware Campaign, which CBTRC runs in partnership with Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and The Brain Tumour Charity, and which has helped halve the average diagnosis time for children’s brain tumours in the UK.

This yet another boost to the work of the CBTRC following hot on the heels of the successful CBTRC Christmas fundraising appeal which you helped smash its £50,000 fundraising target to raise an impressive £62,932.

The money was raised largely by CBTRC campaign ambassadors, including other families of children who have been treated at the pioneering unit. It is being used to appoint a clinical researcher to work on a new, more effective way of delivering anti-cancer drugs into the spinal fluid or brain.

Whichever way you support CBTRC, either through Claudia’s Cause, our Christmas Fundraising Appeal or directly by supporting CBTRC, we would like to offer our heartfelt thanks.

Posted on Monday 22nd February 2016