Workers walk around the world to find a cure for brain tumours

Employees from an Exeter-based company are taking part in a month-long walkathon to raise money for Brain Tumour Research.

A 25-strong team from Shipman Financial Planning is aiming, with the help of 10 others from parent company Amber River, to walk more than 40,000 kilometres (24,901 miles) throughout September – the equivalent distance of travelling around the world.

The team from Shipman is fundraising for Brain Tumour Research after financial administrative assistant, Louise Pickering lost her mum, Angela Linnell to the disease 26 years ago.

Louise, 45, said: “Mum died when I was only 18 and I felt lost. I was touched when I found that our fundraising will go towards finding a cure for this disease.”

Angela began to suffer with confusion, experiencing several ‘episodes’ before she was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Surgery and radiotherapy couldn’t contend with the aggressive nature of the disease and she died in 1996 aged 50.

Louise, who has two children aged 17 and 15, said: “This feels like a poignant time to remember my mum as my daughter will soon be the age I was when I lost her.”

Since the challenge started, on 5 September, more than £1,000 has been raised for the charity whose vision is to find a cure for all types of brain tumours.

Louise’s colleague and fellow walker, Sam Tisbury, said: “We have a corporate fitness app for all the teams so we can see how close we are to reaching our walking distance target. It’s been a great challenge so far with some friendly competition across the other offices. It’s a pleasure to be able to do something like this for charity, and especially one that means so much to our colleague.”

The walkathon is due to finish on Friday 30 September with weekly prizes awarded to the top walker as well as the top team.

Only 12% of brain tumour patients survive beyond five years of their diagnosis compared with an average of 50% across all cancers, yet historically just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to brain tumours.

Mel Tiley, community, and development manager at Brain Tumour Research, said:“We’re grateful to Louise for sharing her experience of losing her mum to a brain tumour. It’s heart-warming that her colleagues are supporting her and other families who are living with their own diagnosis. One in three people know someone affected by a brain tumour and more needs to be done to find a cure for the disease. We wish the team well as their challenge comes to an end.”

To donate to Brain Tumour Research via Louise’s Walkathon challenge please visit:www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ShipmanWalkathon2022

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 the driving force behind the call 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.