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Your legacy is planting seeds that you will never see flower.
Your legacy is knowing that you’ve done better for the next generation. Your legacy is having the rebellious hope that the actions you take today will create a better society tomorrow

Dame Deborah James

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Bowel Star
Smarter screening to detect bowel cancer

The Bowelbabe Fund is delighted to commit £500k to a study aiming to detect more bowel cancers at an earlier stage.

 

This multi-organisation project, involving a number of university and NHS collaborators, is being led by researchers from the University of Edinburgh and Queen Mary University of London. The study will collect lifestyle data from 20,000 people who’ve had tests for blood in their poo. It’ll be used to create a new, risk-based screening strategy for bowel cancer.

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Cancer Grand Challenges -
Team PROSPECT

April 2025 we co-funded a brand new, world-leading research programme that aims to help doctors predict the best , personalised treatments for each person’s unique disease.

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Bowelbabe Fund
Consultant & Fellow

We are funding a new gastrointestinal (GI) Consultant and Clinical Fellow to join Professor David Cunningham's team at the Royal Marsden Cancer Hospital. Professor Cunningham was Deborah's oncologist. These two roles will lead early phase clinical trials and focus on researching personalised medicines including cancer vaccines.

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New Projects On Their Way!

Watch This Space

Sebastine (Deborah's Husband) and Ben James (Deborah's Brother) with the co-leads of the Cancer Grand Challenge Team OPTIMASTIC

Cancer Grand Challenges -
Team PROSPECT

In March 2024, alongside global funders we committed £5 million, over five years, to uncover the reasons behind the global rise in early-on set bowel cancer. This is a cancer type that’s on the rise but it’s not well understood, and we don’t know for sure what’s causing it. 

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The Bowelbabe Laboratory at The Francis Crick Institute

In October 2024 we donated £1.6m to the Francis Crick Institute. This will see researchers in The Bowelbabe Laboratory led by Professor Vivian Li, study lab-made ‘mini-bowels’ to aid the development of new, more targeted treatments for bowel cancer.

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Dr Marco Gerlinger Immunotherapy

In May 2024 we announced we would be fully funding a project to understand how we can make immunotherapy more effective for people with bowel cancer. Immunotherapy uses our immune system to fight cancer and is more targeted than chemotherapy.

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Cancer Grand Challenges - Team OPTIMISTICC

We made a £1m investment to the OPTIMISTICC Cancer Grand Challenges team who are analysing the microbiome – the trillions of bacteria, viruses and fungi residing in our bodies to find out how these microbes can drive cancer & influence a person’s response to treatment.

Trevor Graham 
Mathematics vs. metastasis

We announced a £1m investment into discovering how bowel cancer spreads by making detailed measurements of tumours and using advanced mathematics 
to make sense of the data. Being led by Professor Trevor Graham.

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Dr Oleg Blyuss

Using AI to detect cancer

In 2023 we announced our support of an innovative project that is developing artificial intelligence (AI) tools to predict when someone has developed the earliest

signs of bowel, pancreatic or lung cancer

Cancer Research UK
Test, Evidence and Transition

We're supporting Cancer Research UK’s pioneering ‘Test Evidence Transition’ (TET) programme, which aims to improve bowel cancer diagnosis for everyone across the UK and ultimately, save more lives.

The Fund will be providing support for the two-year programme.

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Bowel Cancer UK 
GP Education & Roadshow 

We've committed £800k to Bowel Cancer UK to roll out a nationwide health information campaign and GP education programme. Bowel Cancer UK is determined to improve that by creating and delivering an impactful awareness programme.

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Royal Marsden
Cancer Charity - IR Machine

We've invested £1m in the purchase of an IR machine and an updated, state of the art treatment room at the Royal Marsden Hospital to house it in. IR uses imaging techniques to treat cancer in a minimally invasive way as an alternative to surgery.

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Continuing Dame Deborah James's incredible legacy.

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The Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK is a restricted fund within Cancer Research UK.
Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247)
and is registered with the Fundraising Regulator. A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

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