Professor John Darling is a cell biologist who’s been specialising in brain tumours since 1978. He directs the Research Institute in Healthcare Science in the University of Wolverhampton.

The Institute co-ordinates and manages all healthcare research in the University, bringing together the School of Health, the School of Sports, Performing Arts and Leisure, and the School of Applied Sciences.

‘Surgery isn’t going to solve the problem if the brain tumour is diffused through the brain, so I’m interested in therapies that are targeted at these diffused cells.

Professor Bill Farrell worked in petrochemicals before taking a PhD in molecular biology at Manchester. He teamed up with clinician Professor Dick Clayton at the University of Keele to study cancers with a perspective on practical solutions.

‘I’m interested in what we can do for the patient,’ he says. ‘There’s no point in saying: ‘You’ve got a very interesting tumour but there’s nothing I can do about it.’

Professor Colin Kennedy is Professor of neurology and paediatrics at the University of Southampton and a consultant paediatric neurologist at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust.

He focused on children treated for brain tumours following his experiences in children’s neuro-oncology during two years in the USA. Since 1987, he has been working with collaborative groups of paediatric oncologists to organise studies intended to improve the outlook for these children. He also leads their brain tumour ‘Quality of Survival’ working groups.

Dr Tracy Warr has three children of her own and fully understands why parents are devastated when their child is diagnosed with a brain tumour.

‘Ependymomas are the third most frequent kind of childhood tumour, with only half the children affected surviving for five years after they are diagnosed,’ explains Dr Tracy Warr in her lab at the Institute of Neurology in central London.