FUNERAL donations totalling more than £2,800 in memory of a Bishop’s Waltham man who died from an aggressive brain tumour will fund research to help find a cure for the disease.
Simon Camsell, an engineer, died aged 58, in November 2021, having been diagnosed with a glioblastoma (GBM) brain tumour two-and-a-half years earlier.
The most commonly diagnosed aggressive brain tumour in adults, just 25 per cent of patients survive more than a year with a GBM, dropping to just five per cent surviving more than five years.
On July 10, Simon’s wife, Jane, and sons Charlie, 27 and Tom, 25, were invited to the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at Queen Mary University of London to find out how their fundraising is helping support scientists leading the way in research into GBM.
Simon’s diagnosis came about after he started having headaches which became so bad they would wake him in the night. One day while gardening, Simon hit his head with a tool and ended up with a terrible headache, while also losing his peripheral vision. At A&E, a CT scan revealed a mass in his brain which was later confirmed to be a tumour.
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He underwent surgery, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. When there was regrowth of the tumour, Simon had more surgery and more chemotherapy until he decided to stop treatment.
Jane, a former primary school teacher, said: “Simon and I met when I was 21 and he’d just left university. It would have been our 30th wedding anniversary last year.
“We always thought we’d grow old together and had plans to continue travelling once he’d retired. I’ll never forget the amazing holiday we had in Vietnam to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.
“It was emotional placing Simon’s tile on the Wall of Hope. I still can’t believe that his cancer was incurable – so much funding seems to go into researching other forms of cancer, while brain tumours lag so far behind.
“It’s some comfort to think that all the donations made in Simon’s memory are helping to make a difference for people diagnosed with brain tumours in the future – tragically they devastate too many families.”
Jane added: “Sadly, it’s too late for Simon, but I hope the money we’ve donated is life-changing. It is heartening to hear from the scientists about the work being done in their quest to find a cure, which can’t come soon enough.”
Louise Aubrey, community development manager for Brain Tumour Research, said: “We’re really grateful to Simon’s family for their support and generosity. We hope that their visit to our Centre of Excellence at Queen Mary University of London offered a useful insight into all we’re doing to improve treatment options for patients and, ultimately, find a cure.
“Just 12 per cent of those diagnosed with a brain tumour survive beyond five years compared with an average of 54 per cent across all cancers, yet just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease since records began in 2002. This has to change.”
To find out more about sponsoring a day of research, go to braintumourresearch.org/fundraise/sponsor-a-day.
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