The progress made by Andrea's Gift charity in a decade

The inaugural fundraiser, organised by colleagues of Andrea Key at Emerald Publishing in Bingley, which remains the charity’s headquarters, was aimed at raising £50,000 towards research into brain tumours – the disease which took the Bradford mum’s life.

Andrea was 42, with the rest of her life to look forward to when she was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Within a short time she had died.

Her family and friends were determined her death wouldn’t be in vain, and organised the fundraiser which became the platform from which they launched the charity Andrea’s Gift.

Carol Robertson, Andrea’s close friend who she met while working for Emerald, says it was evident in the early days, talking to Andrea’s surgeon, Paul Chumas, that more needed to be done to raise awareness and funds towards brain tumour research. Even today, research into the condition remains severely under-funded.

Around 16,000 brain tumours per year are diagnosed in the UK. They are the most common cause of death in children and the under-40s, yet receive less than one per cent of national cancer funding.

“Andrea was a very practical person and I think it must have frustrated her completely to be told that she had a serious diagnosis,” says Carol.

Dealing with that is traumatic in itself and knowing nothing can be done is devastating. “When you are given that news it has to be the most devastating time, because you are not going to survive it and they have told you it could be as soon as three months,” says Carol.

“I think when anybody gets that news, what you want is hope and I think that is what the research now will give.

“In the 11 years since Andrea died – ten years since the charity was set up – we have developed the foundation and I think she would be very pleased with that.”

The charity relies almost entirely on donations and the generous fundraising feats of patients and their families and friends. Fundraising, and the charity’s link with local hospitals, has enabled it to establish a support network, with groups meeting regularly.

Liaising with patients, Carol and other supporters have been able to tap into the needs of those with first-hand knowledge and experience of the disease.

“We always had a plan as to what we wanted to do and what we wanted to achieve, but we didn’t ever stop thinking about and planning for the following year, because it is patient driven,” says Carol.

Liaising with patients enables the charity to recognise their individual needs. “Everybody is individual, everybody has a different set of needs and wants. It is such a complicated disease,” she says.

Researching treatments to improve quality of life and hopefully one day find a cure, has become the impetus for everything the charity is continuing to achieve.

To date, the fund stands at £1.7m and Andrea’s Gift, along with children's’ charity Candlelighters, have set up a lab team dedicated to research into brain tumours at the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine.

Under the leadership of senior scientist Sean Lawler, who worked extensively in America before returning to his home county of Yorkshire two years ago, the translational neuro-oncology team in the Leeds lab, which the charity is helping to fund is researching tumours with the aim of leading to improved treatments, prevention and cure.

Raising awareness is integral to the charity’s development. Reaching out to a wider audience was the impetus for its name change in 2011 to Brain Tumour Research And Support Across Yorkshire, but Carol and her supporters are adamant that Andrea will always be part of it. It is her legacy.

“Andrea is always part of it. She was very special and part of the whole charity. Without her we wouldn’t be here today,” says Carol.

Lobbying MPs is something Carol and her supporters have done to raise the charity’s profile and secure more funding specifically for brain tumour research.

“Brain tumours kill more people in their 40s and children than any other cancer. It kills more women than cervical cancer,” says Carol.

“More money and focused research will equal better prognosis and prolong life for a lot more people.

“It’s just so sad people have to die for these things to happen. The only positive is that they don’t die in vain, the Andreas and Ians of this world,” she says, referring to stalwart fundraiser, Ian Meek, who died from a brain tumour last year and whose £100,000 legacy from fundraising events such as bike rides and scaling the national Three Peaks will help fund a research student under the Ian Meek Studentship.

For more information about the charity, visit btrs.org.uk or e-mail contact@btrs.org.uk. For more about Support Suppers, e-mail contact@btrs.org.uk or call (01943) 870770.