Fashion conscious students raise £28k for brain tumour research

Students have raised more than £28,000 for the Brain Tumour Charity to help fund research into vital treatments.

With sponsores including Fendi, PWC and Veuve Clicquot, this year’s event saw more than 2,000 students from St Andrews University take part in the spectacle.

Now in its 25th year, the event has raised more than £460,000 for numerous charitable causes.

All the funds raised from the launch party and fashion show go towards a project at HeriotWatt University in Edinburgh where scientists are printing 3D brain tumours for the first time as part of a multi-million-pound research investment by the Brain Tumour Charity.

The aim is to secure a more effective, easily-reproducible way to test drug treatments for primary malignant brain tumours.

The Brain Tumour Charity’s partnership with St Andrews Fashion Show was inspired by the Silas Pullen Fund, set up in memory of 11-year-old Silas who died of a brain tumour in 2013.

Ben and Sarah Pullen, Silas’s parents, said: “Treatment of brain tumours has barely changed.

“When our son Silas was diagnosed he was put on drugs that were 40 years old – they didn’t work then and they don’t work now.

“Right now, there is little else to offer these children but the pioneering work undertaken by the Brain Tumour Charity gives families like ours who are facing the disease more hope.”

Sarah Lindsell, chief executive of the Brain Tumour Charity, said: “We are immensely grateful to St Andrews University Fashion Show for raising awareness and funds.”