Congratulations to Nicole Witts and Her Fundraising Team
Nicole's Team In Freezing Fog on Snowdon
Nicole Witts, who was diagnosed with a life-threatening “benign” grade 1 meningioma, and her team have completed an extraordinary fundraising effort for Brain Tumour Action. Nicole had visited her GP eight times before her tumour was identified – she’d had to rebut a host of often insulting alternative diagnoses – and her eventual operation, which threatened her powers of speech, lasted eight hours.
Like so many brain tumour patients, even her successful operation has left Nicole with permanent after-effects to deal with, including memory problems, epilepsy and the loss of her driving licence, and with her recovery ongoing, she was unable to take part in her team’s successful crack at the Three Peaks Challenge.
The Three Peaks Challenge is an intensely gruelling 24-hour attempt to scale Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England and Snowdon in Wales, with the driving in between the peaks estimated at a minimum of eleven hours. Nicole’s husband Gary was joined by brother-in-law Steve Rock and friends Matthew Pearcy, Keren Millia and driver Creighton Varney.
Nicole embarked on a remarkable round of consciousness-raising, publicising and campaigning to support the bid. Her media achievements included full-length articles in both the Leighton Buzzard Observer and the national News of the World.
Nicole Witts in the News of the World
Nicole also attracted interest from the television magazine programme This Morning and from the Daily Mail. She gave talks to schools and other organisations, and mobilised her network to attract an extraordinary range of sponsors and donors.
Fundraisers like Nicole provide the funds, the publicity and the momentum that will surely mean one day that people no longer have to undergo experiences like hers. With any luck, her media work will have taught lots of people about a cancer that is still very little understood or known about, and enabled some to make potentially life-changing visits to GP or hospital to get checked out. And the work and commitment of Nicole, Gary, Steve, Matthew, Keren and Creighton inspire us all to work and fight on until the job is done.
Deepest thanks and gratitude to Nicole and the team from everyone at Brain Tumour Action. Congratulations on an extraordinary job done.
August 21, 2009
Posted in: News from BTA
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