Adele's Memorial Fund

 Adele was born on May 10th 1987 and is the eldest daughter of Steve and Paula.She had 2 brothers, Robert and Alex, and a sister Jade.

She attended newcomen primary school followed by WestRedcar community school, and was a conscientous worker even throughout her illness.

She first became ill in January 2001 and was diagnosed with a brain tumour on 15 May 2001, 5 days after her 14th birthday.

She underwent a 6 hour operation in Newcastle general hospital where they managed to remove 90% of the tumour. We found out later that week that is was a glioblastoma multiforme, a highly aggressive, fast growing tumour.

She underwent 8 months of chemotherapy (temozolamide) and 6 weeks of radiotherapy and in 2002 she had almost a year of clear scans.

Unfortunately, in January 2003, the tumour started growing again. Adele tried 2 rounds of a different type of chemotherapy(PCV) but the tumour continued to grow. In April, Adele was told that she wasn't going to get better and chose to go on a course of palliative chemo(Oral Etoposide) to try and keep her symptoms at bay and hopefully slow the growth of the tumour.

She amazed everyone throughout her ordeal with her courage, determination and bravery. She recieved a Braveheart award and a princess Diana memorial award for which the school recommended her, this included a visit to Althorpe house, with a tour of the house of commons and house of Lords added by Vera Baird when she presented the award.

Adele never complained or lost her sense of humour, even in the final weeks when she became very ill.

She died peacefully at home on 30th November 2003 surrounded by her family.

Her determination has inspired us to keep her memory alive, we decided that the best way to do this was to raise money to help the various charities and organisations that helped us throughout the 2 1/2 years of Adele's illness, including the Rainbow trust and Clic Sargent.

The fundraising went so well that  we then decided to register as a charity in 2004.