How we help

The North of England Children’s Cancer Research fund have been funding research into childhood cancer in Newcastle upon Tyne for over 30 years. In September 2016 the new NECCR Research Laboratories were opened, a world class facility inside of the Wolfson Centre for Childhood Cancer Research based in Newcastle. These are some of the recent developments in research we have helped to fund:

Clinical Trials

Scientists at Northern Institute for Cancer Research are currently working on clinical trials to develop new therapies to improve survival rates and treatment intensity for patients with Leukaemia.

Individualisation of treatment

NECCR has been researching ways to provide individual treatment to children with an aggressive type of brain cancer to ensure the final outcome is as positive as possible.

New Therapies

Funding from The NECCR has been fundamental in the discovery of a less aggressive medical approach to treating childhood Leukaemias, the most frequent cancers in children.

Deepali Pal - Research Associate/Fellow

Although childhood leukaemia can now be successfully treated in 90% of cases, relapse has a very poor outcome and the medicines have side effects that compromise health and long-term quality of life. We have developed a method by which patient-derived leukaemia cells (not cell lines) can now be grown in the laboratory and studied. We are now advancing a drug development technique which will test several medicines on individual patient samples. This project will establish a tool that will rely on patient samples to generate more efficient and less toxic medicines for children with leukaemia.

What is the best part of being involved with childhood cancer research? A healthy, happy, secure and successful future is every child’s birthright. Children build our future and I feel very privileged to be able to contribute towards wellbeing of children.

What hobbies do you enjoy when you’re not in the lab? Cooking (and chillies and spices!), kettlebell sport, kickboxing, drinking cocktails.

Julie Irving - Reader in Experimental Haematology

While the improvement in the treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) over the last fifty years has been a resounding success, clinical challenges remain. They include the need for new drugs for relapsed disease and those at high risk of relapse because of persistent disease. In addition, treatment is prolonged, causes debilitating side effects and a proportion of children may be cured with less treatment. My research aims to address these challenges by using advanced technologies to optimise therapy in children with ALL.

What is the best part of being involved with childhood cancer research? Being part of pioneering science for the benefit of sick children.

What hobbies do you enjoy when you’re not in the lab? Dog training, reading.