Progress to date

Angela’s Small Cell Ovarian Cancer Research Fund was set up at The Eve Appeal in January 2013 in memory of Angela Butcher. At the end of 2012, Angela, in the last few weeks of her life, made it her mission to fundraise to get the world’s first research into small cell ovarian cancer off the ground, to give others hope.

Inspired by Angela and with the knowledge that with The Eve Appeal £30,000 would secure the foundations for a 15 month research project, Angela’s family, Linda, Mike and Mark Butcher, continued fundraising.

In March 2015 there was £30,000 in Angela’s Fund and the foundations for a 15 month research project were secured!

In April 2016 Cambridge Genetics Research Centre and University College London Hospital started the 15 month research project into small cell ovarian cancer. A Patient Research Registry and Collaboration of International Researchers was set up in the UK for the purpose of sending out DNA kits for the collection and archiving of tissue samples, which would undoubtedly add to the knowledge base for small cell ovarian cancer… Angela did it!

Due to the rarity of small cell ovarian cancer, it soon became clear that a full 5 year research programme needed to be in place.

In June 2016 a huge boost was given to Angela’s Fund when Matt Lees raised over £15,000 with his Pantsman game, taking Angela’s Fund simultaneously to the £50,000 / £60,000 and securing enough funding for two and a half years of research.

In July 2018 the research team secured the very first session, purely dedicated to small cell ovarian cancer at The Annual British Gynae Cancer Society Conference at Queen Elizabeth II Centre, Westminster. Organised by Dr Marc Tischkowitz at Cambridge Universiry, scientists and researchers from around the world presented their knowledge and discussed the way forward for research into this disease. This was a giant leap forward!

• 

Angela’s Fund reached £120,000 in April 2019, securing the foundations for a full 5 years’ research programme! The research is now evolving, and other families have joined in the effort and fundraised for the project to continue.

To date Angela’s Fund stands at an incredible £130,000 and fundraising continues to support the development of the Patient Research Registry outside the UK, which is now being led by Dr William Foulkes at McGill University – with a view to clinical trials further down the line. To find out more about the soon to be launched Patient Registry, click here.

There’s still a long way to go to develop the Patient Research Registry internationally to become the worlds focal point of all small cell ovarian cancer research. If you would like to support Angela’s Fund, please donate on the button below.