Welcome to Newsletter No. 14

Again, sorry it’s been so long!

Cancer update

My cancer update. Fortunately, the medication I have to take for the next five years has produced not one side-effect. I’ve been incredibly fortunate that I’ve been able to carry on with my life as normal. I went back to the clinic on the 15th February the area where the procedure had taken place felt very lumpy. I was examined and had another mammogram and ultrasound and, thankfully, all is well. I will have another mammogram in August.

I was fortunate that my cancer was caught early. If you are called for a mammogram, then please go. These are provided free by the NHS from ages 50 – 71. You will be called every three years. I won’t be raising funds for this cancer as, fortunately, it is incredibly well funded. I will however, raise awareness of the importance of attending mammogram appointments.

I have lost Charlotte to cancer but I still have Miles. I owe it to him to be here for as long as possible. I know both of my children would never have forgiven me for not attending the appointments, especially when they are free.

Latest news from Kings College, London:

Barnaby, Consultant Clinical Scientist:

‘We have used Charlotte’s BAG Charity funding to invest in Oxford Nanopore Technology. This enables rapid DNA sequencing and data analysis in real time. Although still early, the results look very promising and should enable a full tumour classification in under two hours of the sample being taken in surgery. Further improvements to this new workflow could support a full molecular analysis within one week and have all results available by the first clinical assessment meeting. This is 3x faster than our current approach. This increased speed of diagnostics will reduce patient anxiety and allow better care planning from an earlier time point.

We are very grateful for this funding, we see this as a paradigm shift in diagnostics and it is very exciting for all those involved in improving the care of these patients’.

We were delighted to learn the two member of the team were awarded honours in the New Year’s Honours list.

Keyoumars Ashkan – Consultant Neurosurgeon was awarded an MBE

Professor Saf Al-Sarraj Consultant Neuropathologist was awarded an OBE

Fundraising 2025

This year’s Team Charlotte challenge will see us completing a 50 miles round trip over the South Downs overnight. We are hoping more colleagues may join us from school as it is at a weekend, hopefully at the end of June/beginning of July. Miles and I are also walking the Jurassic Coast walk over the first week of August. We are hoping to be joined for a few miles by both our patrons Matthew Wright (the Wright Stuff & LBC Radio) and Elly Griffiths

(Best-selling British crime novelist). Both these walks will be raising funds for Charlotte’s BAG.

Miles and I completed our first 10k run in November last year. I’m happy to say I was in the last 50 out of 2500 runners! It was great to take part!

Media

We have been very fortunate to have been interviewed by BBC Radio 5 Live on 18th November 2024. In addition I was interviewed by the Australia Magazine, Nine. I also appeared in the March addition of Prima Magazine.

Finally remember:

The big difference with our charity is that we self-fund. This means that 100% of your donation goes to research at Charlotte’s Lab, King’s College Hospital, London. We have no salaries, no overheads, no advertising, no merchandise. We have no quirky gimmicks to draw you in, just the story of a wonderful and incredibly brave young woman via her YouTube channel. We pay our own expenses, including PayPal fees & PO Box fees. If you want to donate to a charity, please think of us.

Twitter

Twitter is our preferred social media platform and, as such, is updated most frequently. Please see this link for the Charlotte’s BAG account: https://twitter.com/alexeades1

*****THE VERY BORING BIT…

Data Protection rules mean that we have to ask you to opt in to receiving this newsletter – so if you would like to continue receiving it by email, and haven’t already opted in, please can you send a quick email to info@charlottesbag.com saying ‘newsletter please’ in the subject matter and then we can add you to the new, General Data Protection Register-compliant list. (If you’ve already done it – thank you, and no need to do it again!)

With very best wishes and all our thanks Alex and Miles

The Charlotte’s BAG team www.charlottesbag.com www.youtube.com/charlotteeades

Brighton Argus Charity of the Year 2017 Alex Eades: ITV Lorraine Inspirational Woman of the Year 2017 Alex Eades: The Sun Fabulous Female 2018 Alex Eades: BBC Radio Surrey and Sussex Fundraiser of the Year 2018 Alex Eades: Brighton Power 100 (87th) 2018 Alex Eades: British Citizen Award July 2019 Nala (Charlotte’s cat) Outstanding Rescue Cat – Cats Protection August 2019 Alex Eades: Brighton Power 100 (45th) 2019

Alex Eades: Points of Light Award March 2020 Alex Eades: Coronation Champion April 2023 Facebook.com Twitter.com Instagram.com

Charlotte’s BAG P O BOX 5439 Brighton BN50 8JR