Monmouthshire family’s fundraising pays for new research into cancer treatment

A Monmouthshire family has reached another milestone with its charity fundraising to pay for research to improve cancer treatments in Wales.

The Walkers - Debbie, Tim and their daughters Holly and Emily from Devauden, sadly lost their son and brother – Tom, to acute myeloid leukaemia when he was aged 13 in June 2018.

They set up the Cancer Research Wales Tom Walker Fund in Tom’s memory and have been raising money for Cancer Research Wales – the Welsh cancer research charity.

Swimathons and hand-made cards

With the support of local people and friends, the family has raised £266,000 through activities including swimathons, walks, musical events and making and selling hand-made greeting cards.

So far, the Walker family’s fundraising efforts have already paid for a £100,000 PhD project through the Cancer Research Wales Tom Walker PhD Research Scholarship, to research acute myeloid leukaemia and improve understanding of the disease.

They’ve also been able to contribute another £92,000 to Cancer Research Wales’s Brain Tumour Research Initiative in 2023.

Now the family’s latest achievement is the funding of a new £40,000 project that will investigate how a probiotic can influence cancer-fighting immune cells.

Said Debbie Walker: “We are really proud and excited to be funding this latest research with money raised by family and friends, including friends of Tom’s. Our thanks, as always go to them for their continued support and ultimately, for remembering Tom. Our next fundraising event is ‘Trek for Tom’ on Friday 3 April.

Six of Tom’s friends are taking on the Welsh Three Peaks. They will be climbing Yr Wyddfa and Cader Idris before travelling south to join 25 more friends and family to scale Pen Y Fan.”

Could diet influence the body’s response to cancer?

The latest research project – ‘Deciphering how probiotics induce highly effective cancer killing immune cells in cancer patients’, will be delivered by Professor Andrew Sewell from Cardiff University.

Commenting on his award, Professor Andrew Sewell said: “I’m very grateful for this award from Tom’s Fund at Cancer Research Wales as it will offer an exciting opportunity to progress work done by colleagues of mine at Kumamoto University in Japan, who tested a particular probiotic alongside immunotherapy in lung cancer patients.

“Patients who received the probiotic in addition to standard treatment often appeared to do better than expected, with a proportion living for many years after diagnosis. These observations raised interest in understanding how something as simple as diet might influence the body’s immune response to cancer.”

The key scientific challenge

“Our team at Cardiff University found that this probiotic can activate a particular type of immune cell that is able to recognise and kill cancer cells. Importantly, not all of these immune cells behave in the same way, only a minority appear to be especially effective at killing cancer. Understanding what makes these cells different is now the key scientific challenge”, added Professor Sewell.

“This project will focus on understanding what makes these particularly effective immune cells different, and how diet and gut microbes might influence their behaviour. 

Our research could help explain why some patients benefit more than others and inform the development of simple, low-cost approaches to enhance existing cancer treatments.”

Pioneering cancer research in Wales

Cancer Research Wales is the independent Welsh cancer research charity and since 1966, it has invested over £39 million in pioneering cancer research projects in Wales.

The charity currently has over £7,600,000 invested in 37 live projects that are researching quicker diagnosis and better and kinder treatments for cancer.

It relies on donations from the public to fund its pioneering work.

Adam Fletcher, Chief Executive Officer of Cancer Research Wales said: “The Walkers are inspirational people and the ongoing support and kindness we receive from Debbie, Tim, Holly and Emily is helping us drive forward our mission of uniting

Wales against cancer through world-class cancer research such as this exciting new project being led by Professor Sewell.”

Respect and admiration

“Their ability to mobilise their community to raise these sums of money for Cancer Research Wales’s work through Tom’s Fund is nothing short of incredible and indicative of the respect and admiration that they receive from the people of Monmouthshire.

“On behalf of myself, the staff and trustees here at Cancer Research Wales, I’d like to say a very big ‘Thank you’ to the Walker family and for the work they do in Tom’s memory - we’re very proud to call you our friends and very glad to have you as supporters.”