Roborough Youth FC score a winner for Brain Tumour Research

Back in March young footballers in the Devon Junior and Minor League were invited to raise funds for Brain Tumour Research, with the team which raised the most wining a new football strip for one of their teams.

Three months on, and the winning team has been revealed – none other than the budding Beckhams of Roborough Youth FC.

The club successfully raised £210 for Brain Tumour Research by selling fun, football scratch cards to spectators at its football matches throughout the season.

Lucy Babb, club secretary, said: “We are very proud of all the hard work it took to raise this fantastic amount for a very worthwhile charity.”

At the Mini Soccer Festival earlier this month, which is one of many Brain Tumour Research fundraising events supported by Santander, a grand total of £2784.14 was raised. The money raised by the bank staff was match funded by the Santander Foundation.

Devon Junior Minor League have chosen Brain Tumour Research as their charity of the year and Santander Plymouth has been fundraising for Brain Tumour Research for the past six months. Brain Tumour Research supports ground breaking and world leading research at Plymouth University, which is home to one of four of the charity’s Research Centres of Excellence.

The research team is led by Professor Oliver Hanemann. Based at Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, their work is focused on low-grade tumours in teenagers and adults. By identifying and understanding the mechanism that makes a cell become cancerous, the team explores ways in which to halt or reverse that mechanism. A key innovation is fast track: testing new drugs in human primary cell cultures leading to innovative phase 0 trials leading to adaptive phase II/III trials with the potential for making drug therapies available to patients both safely and faster.

Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer for people under the age of 40, and in the South West we have the highest incidence of brain tumours in the UK.

Christian Burden, Director of Development at Plymouth University, said: “The support we and Brain Tumour Research have received so far from the Devon Junior and Minor League and Santander is phenomenal, and goes towards our target of raising £1 million a year to support our research via the charity. Every fundraising activity helps and we are always delighted to hear from individuals and organisations keen to lend their support.”

Elaine Bleazard, Branch Director at Santander Plymouth said: “My team are passionate about this charity and have found all sorts of fun ways to raise money.  From bucket collections, to a pub quiz, to a planned Summer Party on the Hoe in September. We are delighted that we have been able to support Brain Tumour Research and the important work they do to help local people in our community.”

For more information, and further ways to help us fund the fight, please visit: www.plymouth.ac.uk/braintumourresearch.