Government yet to give out most funding pledged in honour of Dame Tessa
MORE than half of the money the Government pledged to fund brain cancer research in honour of Dame Tessa Jowell is yet to be “deployed”, a charity has said.
Dame Tessa, a former Labour cabinet minister, dedicated the final years of her life to raising awareness around brain cancer before dying from a brain tumour in 2018.
After her death the Government announced that it would make £40 million available to brain tumour researchers.
But £28m of this is yet to be released to scientists, Brain Tumour Research said.
The charity’s chief executive, Dan Knowles, said: “The £28m of promised Government funding still hasn’t been deployed.
“That money is yet to fund researchers, and it is yet to provide any new hope for patients and their families.
“Research investment leads to innovation and clinical trials, resulting in new knowledge, new techniques, new therapeutics and improved options and outcomes for patients. If there isn’t investment in research, clinical advancements will not happen.”
It is the second time in recent years that the Government has faced criticism for failing to release promised money for research.
In 2021, the Government committed at least £50m for motor neurone disease (MND) research.
But the Department of Health and Social Care was accused of withholding the funding following the death of former Scotland rugby international Doddie Weir in November 2022.
The Motor Neurone Disease Association said at the time that none of the money had been released to researchers, prompting ministers to act. Now campaigners are set to gather in Westminster to urge ministers to release more funding and to declare brain tumours a “clinical priority”.
They includes actor Craig Russell, who had surgery for a brain tumour last year.
The 46-year-old, who played Mark Antony in the Netflix drama Queen Cleopatra, was diagnosed with a meningioma after suffering months of migraines and episodes of brain fog.
The father-of-two, from Falmouth, Cornwall, who had part of his skull replaced, said: “Before being told I had a brain tumour, I didn’t know how little funding research this disease receives.”