The Glioblastoma Campaign

The Glioblastoma Campaign was established by Baroness Margaret McDonagh and her sister Siobhain McDonagh, the Member of Parliament for Mitcham and Morden.

When Margaret was diagnosed with glioblastoma, they did the research and were appalled with what they learnt. They discovered that treatment available on the NHS was woefully inadequate. All the money is being directed elsewhere. Doctors are being trained in other cancers but glioblastoma is being left on the way side. Clinical trials are non-existent. The usual surgery and radiotherapy are available, but chemotherapy is being carried out with a drug stuck in a time warp. First trialled in the 1970s and in use since 2005, the drug has not advanced since.

Margaret was too unwell to withstand the chemotherapy, but with private care from Dr Paul Mulholland she was put on a regime of immunotherapies and hyperthermic treatments. The machine for the hyperthermic treatment was in Germany. Sometimes Margaret could barely get on the plane. Margaret and Siobhain campaigned and raised the funds for the UK to buy the necessary equipment. Dr Mulholland now has a hyperthermic machine to use in the UK.

Siobhain is now continuing the campaign to get better treatment for glioblastoma patients and to find a cure for glioblastoma brain cancer within ten years. The Glioblastoma Campaign has five demands, above, with the Win-Glio trial programme established in Margaret’s memory at the heart of the vital clinical trials using lessons learned from melanoma cancer treatments.