The Stuart Bathers Fund

WHAT IS THE STUART BATHERS FUND?

Stuart’s capacity for generosity and his desire to help others is one of the many things that made him so wonderful. Throughout his experience with Glioblastoma, he was adamant that he wanted to find ways to be of as much use to other people facing this disease. After his death, our families have made it our mission to honour these wishes, by setting up The Stuart Bathers Fund.

The fund offers grants for patients diagnosed with hard-to-treat cancers, to help with personal treatment plans and access to networks of global experts who can facilitate experimental treatments outside the UK. Specifically, the grant will allow patients to gain access to one of the innovative Patient Navigators founded by ACT Above and Beyond. ACT Above and Beyond is a not for profit CIC organisation started by Cordelia Taylor a GBM survivor (and a dear friend of ours) and Dr Jack Kriendler, the founder of ACT for Cancer,  (find out more about ACT Above and Beyond here).

HOW CAN THE PATIENT NAVIGATOR SERVICE HELP?
While the NHS is a wonderful service in so many ways, in our experience we found it to be critically limited when it came to non-standard treatment options for GBM. There was little support to find innovative treatments that were available in other countries. Treatment in the UK hasn’t changed for over three decades, despite brain tumours remaining the biggest killer of children and adults under 40. This needs to change, now! 

The ACT for Cancer Foundation (and by extension Act Above and Beyond) exists to provide ‘Every chance for everyone’ when faced with hard-to-treat cancer, for which standard treatment options have been exhausted or simply don’t exist. 

ACT Above and Beyond empower both patients and their oncologists to jointly exercise their ‘right to try’ innovative treatments or to find novel trials in targeted medicines and immunotherapies which could:

• Potentially extend patients’ lives 
• Improve quality of life
• Provide more research insight to what improves cancer care

The Patient Navigator service will serve to open doors, save time and connect patients with international experts who will be best placed to put together an intuitive, personal treatment plan. This is a unique partnership between ACT Above and Beyond and the top surgeons, oncologists, centres of excellence and cancer care providers of innovative treatment across the world. Each navigator will enable patients and caregivers to access and maximise their treatment potential.

Donations made via The Stuart Bathers Fund, will help to kickstart that process. A bursary of £250 will help enable patients and caregivers to quickly access information about highly personal cancer treatment options that could otherwise take months to find, as well as an invaluable support system. We know how important this would be from first-hand experience, this is why we are committed and passionate about raising funds for such an important cause.