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Media release – Embargoed until midnight Wednesday 24 October
Brain tumour supporters in seventeen countries have walked the equivalent of
twice around the world at the Equator so far this year to honour current and
past patients and to draw attention to the need for more research to be devoted
to this cancer.
Mr Denis Strangman (Australia), Chair of the International Brain Tumour
Alliance (IBTA), said that some 16,000 walkers had so far participated in the Walk
Around the World for Brain Tumours and there were another eighteen walks to
take place during the current International Brain Tumour Awareness Week (21-27
October). (IBTA website: www.theibta.org
)
“We set out to circle the world at least once, which is 40,000 kms but
the commitment to raising awareness of the challenges of brain tumours
has been so great and the idea was so popular that the total distance achieved
to date is now more than 80,000 kms. We have been amazed at the response so far
- so much so that we are hoping the target will reach at least two and a half
times the circumference of the Earth. We therefore urge participants to
‘Keep on Walking’ during this week!"
"The Walk Around the World for Brain Tumours and the activities associated
with the inaugural International Brain Tumour Awareness Week truly represent a
global effort from people of all ages and cultural backgrounds," he added.
The largest walking group comprised 4,000 students from Arizona who walked
around a school oval in an annual fund-raising event for brain tumour research
and donated the distance they covered to the World Walk target.
In other instances it was a one-person activity, including a young Canadian man
trekking in the High Arctic and a UK pilgrim following the Camino de Santiago
route in Spain,
A mother and daughter, who had lost their husband and father to a brain tumour,
walked the Ngorongoro crater rim in Tanzania in his memory and also to raise
funds for brain tumour research and support.
A man in Hawaii recruited daily fitness walkers to the cause as they walked in
the scenic Queen Kapiolani Park.
Companies and research institutes that have a link to therapies for brain
tumours incorporated a walk by staff during business planning days.
Two people will be trekking 120 kms at a height between 2,600 and 5,400 metres
in the Himalayas to raise funds for a UK charity for brain tumour research.
In one unstable country which the organisers preferred not to name, police
banned a proposed brain tumour awareness walk because of fears it might
generate a riot.
The world 50 kms racewalking champion and world record holder Nathan Deakes
(Australia), who is training from a base in Italy, will donate the distance he
covers during the Awareness Week. As an elite racewalker this is likely to be
several hundred kilometres.
The World Walk and inaugural Awareness Week have attracted support from almost
100 organisations in 23 countries.
Brain tumours are a neglected cancer but research released by the IBTA this
week indicates that at least 200,000 people worldwide develop a primary,
malignant brain tumour each year, for whom the prognosis is grim (See: http://www.theibta.org/uploads/file/MainMediaRelease.pdf
)
Others develop so-called ‘benign’ brain tumours, which can be lethal, and
there are also brain tumour metastases caused by a cancer elsewhere in the
body.
Brain tumours are unique as a cancer in so far as they attack both the mental
and physical capacity of the person.
World brain tumour expert Professor Martin van den Bent (Netherlands)
has said in a statement marking the Awareness Week “The presence of cognitive
deficits, memory disturbances, personality changes and other neurological
deficits, often interfere with daily functioning and prevent these patients
from leading a normal active life; and because of these cognitive deficits and
personality changes the relatives of these patients suffer as well.”
Reports of walks already undertaken and those yet to be held, and other
awareness meetings, can be found on the IBTA website at: http://www.theibta.org/index.php?page=main-information
and at http://www.theibta.org/index.php?page=recent-events
Ends
CONTACTS
Professor van den Bent MD: Chair, Neuro-Oncological Unit, Daniel
den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Chair, Brain Tumor Group,
European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). Email - m.vandenbent@erasmusmc.nl
Telephone: +31-10-4391415 (hospital).
Denis Strangman: Chair, International Brain Tumour Alliance (IBTA),
Canberra, Australia. Email – chair@theibta.org
Telephone: +61-2-62583912
Kathy Oliver: Secretary, IBTA, Surrey, United Kingdom. Email: Kathy@theibta.org
Telephone: +44-1737 813872
Statistical research: This was commissioned from the Central Brain Tumor
Registry of the United States (CBTRUS), Illinois, USA. Contact: Ms Carol
Kruchko, President and Administrator. Email: Ckcbtrus@aol.com
Telephone +1 - 630-655-4786
Brain tumour patient support organisations: There are hyper-links to 49
national and local brain tumour organisations on the right-hand column of the
homepage for the IBTA at www.theibta.org
These organisations can provide information and comment about local situations.
National expert comment: The following people, in addition to Professor
van den Bent, support the International Brain Tumour Awareness Week and
are available for comment (please be considerate of time zones if telephoning).
North America: Professor Abhijit Guha MD, Professor of Neurosurgery,
University of Toronto and Chair of the Society of Neuro Oncology, Telephone +1-
416-603-5740 Email: Abhijit.Guha@uhn.on.ca
Europe: Dr Francesc Graus (Spain), President, European Association for
Neuro-Oncology Telephone +34-932275414 Email fgraus@clinic.ub.es
United Kingdom: Professor Roy Rampling, Professor of Neuro-Oncology,
Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre Glasgow. Telephone: +44 0141
301 7092 Email: r.rampling@udcf.gla.ac.uk
Germany: Professor Wolfgang Wick, MD, Chairman, Department of
Neurooncology, University of Heidelberg. Email: wolfgang.wick@med.uni-heidelberg.de
Tel.: + 49 (0) 6221/56-7075 Italy: Dr Alba A Brandes, Chairman, Medical
Oncology Department, Bellaria Maggiore Hospital, Azienda USL di Bologna, Italy,
and President of Gruppo Italiano Cooperativo di Neuro-Oncologia (GICNO).
Telephone: +39 051 6225697. Email: alba.brandes@yahoo.it
Australia: Dr Elizabeth Hovey, Chair, Neuro-oncology Group, Clinical
Oncological Society of Australia. Telephone: +61 -2-9382 2577 during working
hours and via hospital switchboard after hours on +61-2-9382 2222 Email: liz_hovey@yahoo.com
Professor David A Walker from the University of Nottingham (UK)
(website: http://www.cbtrc.org/ ) , who is
an expert on paediatric brain tumours, is also available for comment and
is currently visiting Royal Children’s Hospital (Melbourne, Australia).
Contact details are: David A Walker, TCT Visiting Professor, Royal Children’s
Hospital / Peter MacCallum Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria. Email david.walker40@gmail.com
Telephone: +61 3 93455656 / 5690 (office), +61 402575812 (mobile).
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International Brain Tumour Alliance – IBTA
PO Box 244, Tadworth, Surrey
KT20 5WQ, United Kingdom
Tel:+ (44) + (0) + 1737 813872
Fax: + (44) + (0) +1737 812712
Mob: + (44) + (0) + 777 571 2569
The International Brain Tumour Alliance is a not-for-profit,
limited liability company registered in England and Wales, registered number
6031485. Registered office: Roxburghe House, 273-287 Regent Street,
London W1B 2AD, United Kingdom. All correspondence should be sent to the
Secretary's address above, not to the registered office.
Official Website: www.theibta.org
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