St Andrew’s Fashion Show (FS) has raised over £28,000 for The Brain Tumour Charity in a bid to fund research in to vital treatments to tackle the disease.
With sponsors including Fendi, PWC and Veuve Clicquot, this year’s event saw over 2000 students take in the spectacle.
Now celebrating its 25th year, the event has raised over £460,000 for numerous charitable causes.
All the funds raised from the launch party – Starfields – and fashion show will go towards a project at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh where scientists are printing 3D brain tumours for the first time as part of a multi-million pound research investment by The Brain Tumour Charity.
The aim is to secure a more effective, easily-reproducible way to test drug treatments for primary malignant brain tumours such as glioblastoma, which kill around 5,000 people in the UK every year.
Students put on glittering show to help defeat brain tumours
The Brain Tumour Charity’s partnership with St Andrews Fashion Show was inspired by The Silas Pullen Fund. The fund was set up in memory of Silas who died of a brain tumour aged 11 in 2013.
Ben and Sarah Pullen, Silas’s parents said, “Treatment of brain tumours has barely changed. When our son Silas was diagnosed, he was put on drugs that were 40 years old – they didn’t work then and they don’t work now. Right now, there is little else to offer these children – but the pioneering work undertaken by The Brain Tumour Charity gives families like ours who are facing the disease more hope.“
Sarah Lindsell, The Brain Tumour Charity’s CEO said, “We are immensely grateful to St Andrews University Fashion Show (FS) for raising awareness and funds.
“We receive no government funding and rely 100% on voluntary donations, so it’s only through the efforts of fundraisers like St Andrews University Fashion Show and others like them that we can work towards our twin goals of doubling survival and halving the harm caused by brain tumours.
“Their support for us and for our research project in Edinburgh will make a real difference as we continue our quest to defeat brain tumours, which kill more children and adults under 40 in the UK than any other type of cancer.”