In memory of Sir Robert Ogden CBE Hon LLD, we invite you to make a gift to support pioneering research into brain cancer at the University of Leeds.

If you would like to make a donation in memory of Sir Robert Ogden please use the black 'Make a Donation' button. The red button is for donations to support students at the University of Leeds.

Brain cancer affects people of all ages and lifestyles. Cancerous tumours of the brain develop seemingly at random, with no linked genetic or lifestyle causative factors.

Currently, there are no ways to reliably detect brain cancer early. A clear brain scan can be followed by one just a few weeks later showing an inoperable tumour. It also eventually resists all attempts at treatment and is almost invariably fatal. Just one in seven adults lives five years after their diagnosis, while those with the highest grade tumours usually only survive just over a year.

Around 9,000 people are diagnosed with brain cancer in the UK every year. This adds a fresh challenge, providing just a small pool of patients with whom to test potential treatments. Brain cancer has remained under-researched and under-funded as a result. While the treatment of many cancers has seen major improvements in the last 20 years, the prognosis for brain cancer patients has barely changed.

Now researchers at the University of Leeds want to go one step further by understanding how brain cancers arise, in order to prevent them from developing in the first place.

The University's Stem Cells and Brain Tumour Group uses state-of-the-art reprogramming technology to effectively 'wind back the clock' in brain cancer cells, allowing them to study how those cells gained the ability to form cancerous tumours, and to consider what went fundamentally wrong, and when.

By mapping out these pathways to disease, researchers hope to have the ability to 'disrupt' or intervene at crucial points along the journey to cancer.

By making a donation in memory of Sir Robert Ogden, you will support this very important research, bringing us closer to understanding and preventing this devastating disease.