Breast Cancer Now - Research

When Nina Barough raised funds from her first challenge, the New York Marathon in 1996, she donated the money she and her team raised to Breakthrough Breast Cancer – now Breast Cancer Now - for research. At this point she had no connection to breast cancer and she had never raised money for charity. Then fate intervened and Nina discovered that she had breast cancer, she went on to establish her grant making charity Walk the Walk.

Nina, with the support of the Walk the Walk Trustees, has always had an ability to recognise where research is most needed. Funds granted to Breast Cancer Now have included;

• The Nina Barough Pathology Laboratory, a core facility at the Breast Cancer Now Research Centre, the first research centre in the UK dedicated entirely to breast cancer research. Closely linked to the prestigious cancer research hospital, the Royal Marsden, the Centre’s researchers are bringing their findings from the lab bench to the patient’s bedside.
• The Generations Study- set up in 2004 to help understand the causes of breast cancer and is following more than 113,000 women in the UK for 40 years.
• The Breast Cancer Now Tissue Bank - Walk the Walk is a founding partner -  the UK’s first ever national breast cancer tissue bank. Read more here.
• The LEGACY Study - allowing patients with secondary breast cancer to donate their secondary cancer tissues for research, shortly after their death.
• Research into triple-negative breast cancer, led by Professor Andrew Tutt - this can be a highly aggressive form of the disease and has limited treatment options. 
• Research into the use of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy by Professor Deborah Fenlon and her team has shown that CBT delivered by nurses can reduce “overwhelming” menopausal symptoms for women with breast cancer. Find out more here.
• The specialised Cross-Centre teams at Breast Cancer Now’s Research Centre - Walk the Walk contributed funding towards a year’s work carried out by these teams, covering the costs of laboratory materials and equipment. Read more here
• Research by Professor Clare Isacke and her team into secondary breast cancer, which could lead to an innovative new treatment. Find out more here.

The Walk the Walk Fellowship 2020 -2025

A grant in excess of £½ million for the Walk the Walk Fellowship has been made to help fund cutting-edge research into breast cancer that has spread to the brain.

Up to 30% of people whose breast cancer has metastasised to other parts of the body, will develop tumours in the brain. Metastatic breast cancer that has spread to the brain can have a severe effect on a person’s quality of life, and due to their location, these tumours are particularly hard to treat, with few treatment options available. Almost all deaths from breast cancer are due to the disease metastasising to other areas of the body, and these secondary cancers currently can only be treated, not cured.

The severe impact on quality of life makes it vitally important that we find new ways to both prevent and treat breast cancer in the brain.

Walk the Walk Fellow and Breast Cancer Now scientist Dr Damir Varešlija is looking at how gene switches in breast cancer cells might make them more likely to spread to the brain and hopes to find ways to prevent this happening.

Hear what Dr Damir Varešlija has to say!