The Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare is working with Brain Tumour Research during March, Brain Tumour Awareness Month, inspired by a boy lost to an aggressive brain tumour, aged just 17.
Kari Hunter, food and beverage supervisor for the Grand Pier, lost her nephew Ethan Treharne in 2021, after he had been diagnosed with a glioblastoma two years earlier. His symptoms included severe headaches and slurred speech. Ethan endured three operations, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and accessed private immunotherapy treatment in Germany, but nothing could save him.
During this month alone, more than 1,000 people in the UK will find out they have a brain tumour – a disease that kills more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer.
Inspired by Ethan, his direct family, who live in Sandhurst, Berkshire, set up a Fundraising Group called A New Hope for Ethan for Brain Tumour Research.
Kari said: “The Grand Pier will be joining in the campaign to Light Up the UK during Brain Tumour Awareness Month, by lighting up in pink again – one of the signature colours of Brain Tumour Research – on Friday 27 March, which is Wear A Hat Day. All the staff will be dusting off their favourite hats and will be asking for donations to this very worthy cause.
“We have an event in the evening with Bristol City footballers and are hoping to get some support from them too!”
“And last Thursday, the Grand Pier hosted the 11th A New Hope for Ethan quiz, which raised a total of £1,620, including £100 from my grandson Harrison’s tombola.”
Wear A Hat Day is one of the UK’s biggest and best-loved brain tumour awareness and fundraising days. It brings people together across the nation to put on their hats, whether that’s a fedora, a sombrero or a Panama (whatever style works), and make a donation, or attend a fundraising, hat-themed event.
More than 60 landmarks and venues across the UK have signed up to support Light Up the UK this month, many on Wear A Hat Day, including iconic buildings such as the Blackpool Tower, The Royal Liver building in Liverpool, Glasgow’s Science Centre, The Royal Yacht Britannia, Gateshead’s Millennium Bridge and Bristol’s Ashton Gate Stadium.
Letty Greenfield, community development manager for Brain Tumour Research, said: “Brain tumours are indiscriminate; they can affect anyone at any age and kill more women under 35 than breast cancer and more men under 70 than prostate cancer.
“We are grateful to all our dedicated supporters who help us raise awareness, including Kari and the team at the Grand Pier. We desperately need to see greater funding for research, investment to bridge the gap between laboratory findings and innovative treatments and improved access to clinical trials, to see change and increased survival rates for brain tumour patients. Brain Tumour Research is committed to funding sustainable research across our Centres of Excellence and campaigning for increased national investment of £35 million per year. Stories like Ethan’s remind us why this work is so urgently needed.”
Brain Tumour Research funds sustainable research at dedicated centres in the UK. It also campaigns for the Government and 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.
It’s not too late to join in the fun of Wear A Hat Day! Just take a selfie wearing a hat, share on social media and make a donation via https://donate.braintumourresearch.org/page/WAHD26
To donate to A New Hope for Ethan go to www.justgiving.com/campaign/anewhopeforethan