Help us fund Harry’s brain tumour treatment

Hello! We are Ivo, Georgia, Tom and Emilie, and we are raising funds for our brother Harry to access specialist treatment to fight his brain tumour.

Here are a few words from Harry:

“I was 22 when I was diagnosed with a high-grade brain tumour. It was the summer I finished university and scans revealed a golf-ball-sized growth in my right temporal lobe after I collapsed in the street one afternoon. My life was put on hold and I underwent a lengthy period of treatment. I had surgery to remove as much of the tumour as possible, followed by an intense course of high-dose radiotherapy and a further 12 months of chemotherapy in an attempt to control the tumour and hold back regrowth.

Over the following years, I learned to live with my diagnosis and with the seizures caused by the tumour and, in August 2021, I felt able to take up the offer of a fellowship to teach and study at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. I was devastated when scans earlier this year showed that the tumour was progressing. I came back to London and underwent a second craniotomy on May 11, one week after my 29th birthday.

My second operation was a brutal reminder that I can never turn my back on this disease and of how difficult a brain tumour is to control. The treatments I received after my first diagnosis bought me six years. My hope now is that by harnessing new treatment options, a long - maybe even permanent - remission is possible and I can look to the future with confidence, thanks to the love and support of my friends and family.”

We thought some of you might also be interested to read a piece Harry wrote after his first diagnosis in 2017, which you can find here via London Review of Books.

Our goal & how your donation will help:

We are fundraising to help Harry access a new immunotherapy treatment that he can add to chemotherapy to increase his chances of remission. There are very few treatments available for brain tumours and there has been little to offer patients beyond surgery, radiation and chemotherapy for 30 years, during which time the statistics for survival have not shifted either.

Earlier this year, brain tumour patients were offered hope when the UK became the first country to approve a new immunotherapy treatment: the DC Vax-L. The DC Vax-L is a dendritic cell vaccine that uses the patient’s own tumour tissue to try and help the body fight the tumour itself. Because the vaccine is made with the patient’s own tissue, it is completely non-toxic. It is given in a series of vaccinations, like seasonal flu-shots, allowing patients to get on with their lives with no devastating side effects. Clinical trials have shown that it has the potential to confer a significant survival advantage.

It is very much hoped and expected that eventually this will become the standard of care for brain tumour treatment, but at the moment the DC Vax-L is only available via a special compassionate use programme and has to be self-funded at a cost far beyond our reach.

Brilliantly, Harry has been accepted onto the programme. We are asking for help to cover the costs of this potentially curative new treatment that Harry has been offered.

Thank you so much for reading and for all your support. Every single contribution - no matter the amount - will be enormously appreciated and will help us get closer to reaching our goal.

Please feel free to get in touch with any questions.

Love from Georgia, Emilie, Tom and Ivo.

P.S. The four of us will be going on an extensive trek, camping overnight, to help raise as much as possible. For those of you who know us, you’ll appreciate that this is likely to be quite a feat. Stay tuned for updates.

The Harry Treatment Fund is being managed by Harry's mum, Anna.