Blue Skye Thinking, have announced funding for a new research programme which aims to combat medulloblastoma, the most common high-grade brain tumour in children.
The INSTINCT-MB project will seek to develop new treatments for Group 3 medulloblastoma, using new drugs and promising new immunotherapies known as CAR-T cell therapies.
Blue Skye Thinking is working alongside Children with Cancer UK and Little Hero. Skye Hall died aged five in 2014.
Speaking on behalf of Blue Skye Thinking, trustee Sally Hall said: “My son Skye’s goodness shone through and was incandescently bright in contrast to this horrid disease, and subsequent side effects of his treatment.
“Despite being ‘cured’, he soon became paralysed from the neck down and was diagnosed with radio-chemo neurotoxicity which had been brought about by the therapies his little body had endured and tragically died soon after.
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“A more personalised and targeted treatment approach that Professor Clifford and his ground-breaking team of researchers are offering through INSTINCT, is an incredible feat in progressive science, which elicits significant hope for children of the future.”
Mrs Hall added: “Having faced real fear of promising and ground-breaking projects being put on hold and subsequently the loss of specialists in the field due to a huge dip in fundraising opportunities over the past two years, we are so proud to be co-funding this life saving research that would otherwise go unfunded.”
Commenting on the research, Professor Steve Clifford, Principal Investigator of the INSTINCT network said: “We urgently need all-new treatment approaches for childhood cancer types with the poorest prognosis.
“By bringing together the essential network of world-leading experts necessary to develop such approaches targeted specifically against tumour biology and bring them to the clinic, we aim to bring about a step-change in the treatment and outlook for these patients.”
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Blue Skye Thinking is a winner of Oxford Bus Company’s Brand the Bus competition.
Mrs Hall added: “Winning the competition and subsequent ongoing support from local people sharing images of our #BigBlueDreamBus as it drives about on Oxford’s roads, has helped us hit our fundraising goal.”
The INSTINCT-MB research project, led by Newcastle University, will aim to develop better and more effective treatments for medulloblastoma, a disease which results in approximately 30% of childhood sufferers dying. Blue Skye Thinking is a charity which supports new research into the treatment of childhood brain tumours.
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