A DEVAUDEN family has raised £226,000 for Cancer Research Wales to improve cancer treatments in Wales.

The Walkers – Debbie, Tim and their daughters Holly and Emily from Devauden, sadly lost their son and brother Tom, to acute myeloid Leukemia when he was aged 13 in June 2018.

They set up the Cancer Research Wales Tom Walker Fund in Tom’s memory and have been raising money for Cancer Research Wales.

The family have managed to raise a total of £226,000 with support from the local people and friends by taking part in swimathons, walks, music events and making and selling hand-made greeting cards.

The funding so far has already contributed to so much including a £100,000 phD project through the Cancer Research Wales Tom Walker PhD Research Scholarship, to research acute myeloid Leukemia and improve understanding of the disease.

As well as this they contributed another £92,000 to Cancer Research Wales’ Brain Tumour Research Initiative in 2023.

The family’s most recent achievement is the funding of a new £40,000 project which will investigate how a probiotic can influence cancer-fighting immune cells.

“We are really proud and excited to be funding this latest research with money raised by family and friends, including friends of Tom’s.

“Our thanks, as always go to them for their continued support and ultimately, for remembering Tom. Our next fundraising event is ‘Trek for Tom’ on Friday, April 3.

“Six of Tom’s friends are taking on the Welsh Three Peaks. They will be climbing Yr Wyddfa and Cader Idris before travelling south to join 25 more friends and family to scale Pen Y Fan.”

The latest research project - ‘Deciphering how probiotics induce highly effective cancer killing immune cells in cancer patients,’ will be delivered by Professor Andrew Sewell from Cardiff University.

“I’m very grateful for this award from Tom’s Fund at Cancer Research Wales as it will offer an exciting opportunity to progress work done by colleagues of mine at Kumamoto University in Japan, who tested a particular probiotic alongside immunotherapy in lung cancer patients.

“Our team at Cardiff University found that this probiotic can activate a particular type of immune cell that is able to recognise and kill cancer cells. Importantly, not all of these immune cells behave in the same way, only a minority appear to be especially effective at killing cancer. Understanding what makes these cells different is now the key scientific challenge,” added Professor Sewell.

Adam Fletcher, Chief Executive Officer of Cancer Research Wales, said: “The Walkers are inspirational people and the ongoing support and kindness we receive from Debbie, Tim, Holly and Emily is helping us drive forward our mission of uniting Wales against cancer through world-class cancer research such as this exciting new project being led by professor Sewell.”

“On behalf of myself, the staff and trustees here at Cancer Research Wales, I’d like to say a very big thank you to the Walker Family and for the work they do in Tom’s memory – we're very proud to call you our friend and very glad to have you as supporters.”