Celebrating First Brain Tumour Tissue Donation

Two Yorkshire-based charities are celebrating the first donation being made to a brand new Brain Tumour Tissue Bank in Leeds. Jointly funded by Yorkshire’s Brain Tumour Charity and Oscar’s Paediatric Brain Tumour Charity, the initial donor has consented to donate their brain tumour tissue whilst undergoing brain surgery today.

Led by Biobank Manager Steven Pollock, the Tissue Bank enables improved collaboration locally and nationally, providing state-of-the-art resources to collect, examine and conserve fresh tissue samples to find treatments and ultimately moving us closer to a cure for brain cancer, giving hope to thousands of families experiencing this devastating disease.

Marie Peacock, Chief Executive Officer at Yorkshire’s Brain Tumour Charity said,
“It has been no small feat developing and launching the Tissue Bank during the current times and we are grateful to the teams at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Leeds for making it happen. We are delighted to be a part of this project which will help improve treatments and increase survival for brain tumour patients. It is tremendous to celebrate and thank the first tissue donor today, especially as March is Brain Tumour Awareness Month.”

Every week 15 adults and children are diagnosed with a brain tumour in our region. They are the biggest cancer killer of people aged under 40, with prognosis for patients improving little in over 40 years. Research is vital to change these shocking statistics.

Susan Mountain’s daughter, Maci, was diagnosed with DIPG, a childhood brain tumour in August 2017 and died in October that year, at just 13 years old. Since that time, Susan and her loved ones have fundraised tirelessly in Maci’s memory, helping to raise funds to support families, research and the new tissue bank.

Susan told us,
“There is no cure for DIPG brain tumours in children and very little funding into research. Could you imagine hearing that if this was your child? We had so many questions and little hope, we want to change that so no family has to go through what we did. The tissue bank will allow scientists access to children’s tumour tissue, giving hope of finding a breakthrough to thousands of families”.