NEW GRANTS
FAMILY TO FUND RESEARCHER IN MEMORY OF SON
Louise Butler, Jane Gardiner, Anna Fryer (Back), Shelagh Smale, Peter Gardiner, Tim Fryer (Front), Sam Fryer, Theo Gardiner, Paul Gellert, Catherine Gellert
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Jane and Peter Gardiner lost their 13-year-old son, Ollie, to an aggressive brain tumour in 2017. Now, they’re honouring his memory by donating a six-figure sum to Brain Tumour Research – enough money to fund a researcher for the next five years. Ollie first became unwell in 2015 with what Ollie was an avid seemed like a recurring stomach bug. After a cricket fan number of visits to their GP, the couple, who live in Buckinghamshire with Ollie’s brother Theo, now In April 2016, Ollie finished his treatment. 13, paid privately for an MRI scan. Sadly, a few months later, a routine scan showed the tumour had returned and this time “The following day, I received the phone had spread. Ollie’s family and friends launched call that totally changed our lives,” recalls dad, Peter. “A mass the size of a golf ball had an appeal – Ollie’s Fund – and together they been found in the back of Ollie’s brain and raised nearly £500,000. it had to come out fast.” Despite further chemotherapy, as well as pioneering treatment at Harley Street and Ollie had a high-grade medulloblastoma brain tumour. The initial surgery to remove it lasted 10 experimental immunotherapy treatment in Germany, both paid for by the fund, nothing could hours and was followed by further operations, be done. Ollie died on 19th November 2017. chemotherapy and radiotherapy. 6
Spring 2020 www.braintumourresearch.org
Sara Badodi (left) now funded as part of the team at QMUL, run by Prof Silvia Marino (right)
Now, Peter and Jane have pledged £187,500 from the fund’s remaining monies to pay for postdoctoral research assistant Sara Badodi at our Brain Tumour Research Centre in Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Peter says: “Two years after losing him, we are trying to come to terms with what has happened and continues to happen to other children. We believe this donation will really help to get closer to finding a cure for the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under the age of 40.”
