brainstrust was founded on the mission to help one person secure access to a novel brain tumour treatment that is now routinely available in the UK. Surplus funds were invested in growing the Charity into what it is today, so that no person would feel as lost and alone as the founding family did at the time of Meg’s diagnosis and journey to a cure for her brain tumour.
Today the Charity helps many thousands of people across the UK to be less alone, less afraid and more confident on their journey. We also help people secure the care they need.
Supporting families access treatments
Since 2006 we have supported many families on their own missions to access treatments that might not be available routinely through the NHS standard of care and which have been supported by their clinical team. We have supported these people with fundraising, administration of what can be a complex cross-border exercise, and ensuring first and foremost that treatments are accessed safely and synergistically with their routine care.
People have fundraised under brainstrust’s Umbrella so that they can afford to access DCVax immunotherapy, Optune, sequencing and profiling with organisations like CeGat and other novel tests and treatments that are approved by their treating clinicians but might not be available as standard of care.
Brain tumour fundraising
If you are fundraising for brain tumour treatment or testing, then the chances are you are considering crowd funding. The table below helps you understand some of the pros and cons of doing this, as compared to partnering with brainstrust and fundraising under our umbrella.
| Crowdfunding | Setting up your treatment fund with brainstrust | ||
| A guiding hand | ✓ | ✓ | Whether you set up a fund with brainstrust or not, we are on hand to help you access and navigate your care. |
| Access to multiple fundraising tools including JustGiving, Enthuse and donorbox | ✗ | ✓ | With brainstrust’s umbrella, you will be able to access the same fundraising tools we do, benefitting from our charitable status and subscriptions. |
| Professional PR and marketing support | ✗ | ✓ | brainstrust’s fundraising team will be on hand to support you with every step of your fundraising |
| Support with financial admin | ✗ | ✓ | As your fund grows, keeping track of income and expenditure can become challenging. brainstrust’s finance team will support you here, providing regular updates and statements. |
| Helping others | ✗ | ✓ | Gift Aid claimed through your fundraising is applied for public benefit, helping us further brainstrust’s work for the brain tumour community. |
| Access to places in fundraising events | ✗ | ✓ | As a registered charity we can help you and your supporters secure places in the events from our ‘team brainstrust’ challenge and events calendar. |
| A ringfenced fund | ✓ | ✓ | Your funds are kept securely with brainstrust as they would be with a crowdfunding platform. |
| Helping the charity sector | ✗ | ✓ | It is understandable that people want to support individuals, seeing their donations have impact for people they might know. Crowdfunding has enabled this ‘direct to beneficiary’ model of giving, but at great cost to the charity sector. Giving to individuals has impacted on the charity’s ability to do good for many. Fundraising with brainstrust however means you can achieve both- you are supporting our work for public benefit, whilst also achieving your own aims. |
Help fund our mission
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