Amount raised so far

To say I am proud of what we have achieved so far is an understatement. We started out after my Mum, June Hancock’s death from mesothelioma in1997 with a target of £40,000. More than 28 years later we have raised in excess of £1.5 million.

Very sadly, the vast majority of this money has been raised by those mourning the loss of a family member or friend or work colleague to asbestos disease.

I am not a medic or a researcher I am simply an ordinary person left devastated by what asbestos did to my family. Nor am I alone in that many thousands of other families are bereft too. Many more will be in the future.

So, being able to do something positive in the face of such tragedy is a privilege, and a privilege that is afforded to me by some wonderful people that dedicate their time freely and with genuine commitment to change the face of treatments and outcomes for mesothelioma patients. Together, we are the JHMRF –aka “Team Hancock” – and after 19 years we remain determined in our objective to fund high quality peer reviewed mesothelioma research.

I want a cure… BUT?

I want a cure because the pain and suffering human beings endure as a result of exposure to asbestos is cruel, distressing, heartbreaking and intolerable. And for those left behind it stays with you forever. It is haunting.

BUT, and more importantly at this stage of medical knowledge and expertise, I want to quickly see better outcomes and treatments for sufferers. To achieve this, we have to look at new therapies to improve survival as well as innovative treatments for symptom control in our research.

The JHMRF takes pride in often funding the ‘building blocks’ for ongoing and future research, striving to build a long term collaborative pool of mesothelioma researchers and knowledge. Everything has to start somewhere.

Kimberley Stubbs, daughter of June Hancock,
Chair and Trustee of the June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund