A city-based national charity is very disappointed that just £6 million of a £40 million fund made available by the UK Government to help find a cure for the disease has been allocated.
The shortfall in money announced more than two years ago was revealed at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Brain Tumours (APPGBT) which took place online on 14 July because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sue Farrington Smith MBE, chief executive and founder of Brain Tumour Research lost her niece Alison Phelan to an incurable brain tumour three weeks before her eighth birthday. Sue was at the APPG this week and said, “Two years on, I wanted to know how the promised £40 million has been spent and what opportunities this money might present at this time of financial jeopardy for research which has been caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The news that two years on just £6 million of the £40 million has been allocated is very disappointing. Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer and research into this devastating disease is vital if we are going to find more effective treatments for patients and ultimately a cure.”
Mike Batley, deputy director of research programmes at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that, since 2018, there had been a total of 54 applications to the fund, just seven of those had been successful and this equated to a brain tumour specific research spend of £6 million. Other monies had been spent on infrastructure.
The meeting heard concerns that the process by which researchers applied for grants needed to change and could be improved by having experts with experience in specific fields on review panels and by encouraging those who were unsuccessful the first time to reapply in order to encourage motivation and ensure scientists remain engaged in the field.
The Government had pledged to revolutionise research into brain tumours in the UK with a £20 million cash injection from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and £25 million from Cancer Research UK. This was followed by a further £20 million from the DHSC following the loss of politician Dame Jessa Jowell to an aggressive brain tumour in May 2018.
In 2016 Brain Tumour Research, along with the wider brain tumour community, worked together to secure more than 120,000 signatures on an e-petition calling for funding into brain tumour research. This was followed by a Westminster Hall debate, a DHSC Task & Finish working group and the subsequent announcement of the significant research investment which was to be made through the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) over five years from March 2018.
Brain Tumour Research holds the secretariat of the APPGBT.
Hugh Adams, spokesperson for Brain Tumour Research, said: “Since the lockdown began, our charity has experienced serious disruption to fundraising leading to a £1 million shortfall in the charity’s income, putting research at risk with the potential of progress made so far being lost. Like other medical research charities, Brain Tumour Research is not eligible for the Chancellor’s widely-praised £750 million rescue package for charities announced early on in the lockdown.”
Brain Tumour Research and its lead scientists are calling for one-off Government grants to research charities to prevent interruption to ongoing work which the UK research pipeline relies on.
Brain Tumour Research funds sustainable research at dedicated centres 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 a national annual spend of £35 million in order to improve survival rates and patient outcomes in line with other cancers such as breast cancer and leukaemia and is also campaigning for greater repurposing of drugs.
