She was a bright, lively, happy, fun-loving girl, who enjoyed school, music, drama, sports, badminton, netball, lacrosse, swimming, ballet, modern & tap dancing, travel and skiing. She played the flute and piano and was a dedicated scholar, working for distinction in all her exams. It was a pleasure to attend Parent’s Evening and hear praise from all her teachers. At 14, Samantha started suffering from deep-seated headaches and vomiting. Later at school she had episodes of memory loss, and despite numerous visits to our GP and a Specialist paediatrician, it took nine months to diagnose her. After collapsing and being rushed to Southampton hospital, Samantha was scanned and diagnosed with a high-grade glioma which was diffused and classified as Gliomatosis Cerebri – a rare tumour. The prognosis was terminal with a chance that radiotherapy and chemotherapy might give some remission. For the next two and a half years we battled to save her life. Despite her bravery and some remission from the radiotherapy, she lost her battle on the 31st October 1996, just seven days before her 17th birthday. We chose to set up the Samantha Dickson Fund, a supporter group within The Brain Tumour Charity, to make sure Samantha’s name will never be lost. It also gives us the opportunity to make sure that all the money raised in Samantha’s name will be restricted to high grade glioma, the tumour type that she had. When we started the charity we raised money for research into adult and childhood brain tumours in general. At that stage it was impossible to believe that in our lifetime we could get a new treatment for Samantha’s tumour type. Due to the progress made this has now changed and it would be a great tribute to her if we can achieve this over the next five years. If the fund is as successful as our earlier fund-raising, we hope to set up a Paediatric High Grade Glioma Centre in Europe with strategic International links. This would be based on the Charity’s Paediatric Low Grade Glioma Centre in Heidelberg, Germany.
