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<\/p>\nA mother who lost her son to an aggressive form of brain cancer has welcomed plans for a new university research centre.<\/p>\n
Brain Tumour Research has announced a \u00a32.6m investment to establish a centre of excellence at the University of Nottingham, which will focus on improving the understanding and treatment of glioblastoma.<\/p>\n
The charity said it hoped to find a cure for the deadliest adult brain tumour.<\/p>\n
Maggie Cullen, from Boston, who lost her son Josh to glioblastoma in October last year, said: “If scientists and doctors can find a cure and stop any more mums going through the torture of seeing their child succumb to this horror, it would be a miracle.”<\/p>\n
Mr Cullen, who loved anything aviation and planned to emigrate to Canada, was just 24 when he was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour on Christmas Eve 2020.<\/p>\n
“When we did get the results, the last thing you ever want the doctor to say is glioblastoma,” his mother said.<\/p>\n
“I wished so much for him to say any other word, just not glioblastoma.<\/p>\n
“They gave Josh 12 to 18 months, and putting myself in his position at the age of 24 I would have just laid down and given up – he was completely the opposite,” she added.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Josh’s mother Maggie said she hoped a cure could be found [BBC]<\/p>\n
The new centre of excellence aims to use AI, along with advanced MRI imaging to detect tumour recurrence earlier.<\/p>\n
Prof Ruman Rahman, the centre’s principal investigator, said: “We envision a future where, ultimately, brain imaging alone will identify drugs tailored to each individual patient, to block glioblastoma recurrence.<\/p>\n
“This change won’t happen overnight \u2013 we need sustained investment in research into brain tumours to do the vital discovery and clinical work to make our vision of a cure for brain tumours a reality.”<\/p>\n
Ms Cullen said she was really happy and excited that some “long-awaited progress” was being made in research.<\/p>\n
“It means so, so much because brain tumour research is so important to so many people,” she said.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Verity Phillips, who was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2022, said the reserch centre offered “a beacon of hope” [Brain Tumour Research]<\/p>\n
The announcement has also been welcomed by people living with glioblastoma, including mother-of-four Verity Phillips, 35, from Immingham.<\/p>\n
She was diagnosed with a glioblastoma in 2022 after collapsing.<\/p>\n
“Glioblastoma is brutal. Like most people diagnosed, I was given just 12 to 18 months to live. I’ve already beaten those odds, but I live from scan to scan, wondering how long I’ll be lucky for.<\/p>\n
“I’m a mum to four beautiful children. I want to be here for all the bedtime cuddles, all the silly squabbles and everything in between,” she added.<\/p>\n
Ms Phillips said the Nottingham centre offered “a beacon of hope” to glioblastoma patients.<\/p>\n
“I know my tumour isn’t going away, but as long as I’m here, I’ll continue to raise awareness and support research until a cure is found,” she said.<\/p>\n
Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds<\/a>, watch the latest episode of Look North<\/a> or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Download the BBC News app from the App Store<\/a> for iPhone and iPad or Google Play<\/a> for Android devices<\/p>\n More on this topicRelated internet links<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mother who lost her son to an aggressive form of brain cancer has welcomed plans for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,82272,183669,191021,20719,137,191020,191022,337],"class_list":["post-345273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brain-cancer","tag-brain-tumour-research","tag-centre-of-excellence","tag-glioblastoma","tag-health","tag-josh-cullen","tag-maggie-cullen","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}