Woman who lost her Peterborough mum to brain tumour calls for more funding

A woman who lost her mum to a brain tumour is supporting a charity’s calls to increase Government funding to study the disease.

Wendy Griffin, 53, from Peterborough, was diagnosed with a glioblastoma (GBM) in 2018. Despite undergoing surgery and having chemotherapy and radiotherapy, Wendy died in December 2020.

To mark GBM Awareness Week, Wendy’s eldest daughter, Michaela Griffin, 28, is sharing her mum’s story to help drive awareness and funding towards research to eventually find a cure for the disease.

She said: “I knew a GBM was a death sentence and Mum would likely have just 14 months to live. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, and I felt like that for the one-and-a-half years that Mum suffered. The anticipatory grief was horrendous; there was this terrible thing and there was nothing I could do to stop it. To look at her, you wouldn’t have known what she was going through, she was incredible. Brain tumours are so unlike other cancers, you just can’t predict what will happen.”

Wendy went to hospital in 2018 after suffering a fall. She had an MRI scan which revealed the tumour but she kept the devastating news to herself to protect her daughters, Michaela, Laura, 23, and Kirstie, 20.

Michaela said: “In July 2018, I was doing a Master of Research degree in cancer research at the University of Nottingham. I FaceTime called Mum and noticed her face was swollen. A week later, Mum visited and told me there was something in her head and she needed to have an operation. I only had one week between Mum telling me she had a brain tumour and her undergoing surgery, everything happened so fast.”

Wendy underwent surgery at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Michaela said: “Mum had check-up MRI scans every three months but a scan in March 2020 showed the tumour had come back with a vengeance. It coincided with the start of the pandemic, and we were told they wouldn’t be able to operate. Mum was put on another round of chemotherapy but she had to stop after two treatments because it made her quite poorly. It was just a last-ditch treatment, but it didn’t work. It just seemed futile.”

Michaela is now campaigning alongside the charity Brain Tumour Research to help reach 100,000 signatures on its petition to increase research funding, in the hope of prompting a parliamentary debate.

Michaela added: “I’ve signed the petition and encourage others to as well because money is so important; without it, there is no research. The statistics around brain tumours are abysmal. They kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, but the Government gives so little to research the disease. They are indiscriminate, and there’s a real disparity with how they are funded and treated compared to other cancers.”

To sign and share the petition visit www.braintumourresearch.org/petition