Over £100,000 raised in four days to help local teacher with brain tumour

The Head of English from Hastings High School in Burbage has been diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma in his left temporal lobe.

Over 3,000 people have donated money to help a local teacher fundraise for immunotherapy therapy treatment.

Earlier this month, the Head of English from Hastings High School in Burbage, Stephen Webb was diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma in his left temporal lobe.

The 40-year-old has a fiance and two young children - Noah,11 and Scout,9.

On Thursday the 19th of September he will be undergoing an awake brain surgery to 'de-bulk' the tumour and will begin (after the confirmation of the biopsy) chemotherapy and radiotherapy. 

Stephen is fundraising for an immunotherapy that activates the body’s immune system and makes it target the brain’s tumour to fight it. 

On his gofundme page he said: "I have been down to London today to meet Professor Ashkan who has pioneered the largest human study in what is in effect a form of immunotherapy. It has shown some positive results with adding time to the lives of these patients. It has shown that, whilst this is still a fatal diagnosis, his DCVAX-L has shown to add time to people’s lives. This is the promise of having precious more time available with my family.

"In short, the funding for this is a little over £150,000 to create this tailored injection using my own blood and the tumour itself to fight the cancer. I am trying to do the impossible by crowdfunding this money as there is no other way around this."

Stephen told Fosse 107 how grateful he is that the community has backed his fundraising.

Fundraiser by Sacha Johnson : Treatment for Glioblastoma (gofundme.com)