HEALTH
The Tara Getty Foundation is dedicated to supporting charities that play a vital role in much needed cancer care and research, mental health support, addiction recovery, women’s health, bereavement and more, with the intention to alleviate suffering, advance treatment possibilities and inspire healing.
BENEFICIARIES
Billy's Battalion
Billy's Battalion's JustGiving page, set up to fund UK DIPG research charity Abbie's Army. Billy Thompson was nearly five years old when he died on 31st March 2024. He was diagnosed with paediatric DIPG brain cancer in November 2023. DIPG is under-funded, under-researched and poorly understood. Every nine days a child in the UK is handed this death sentence. DIPG is 100% fatal, highlighting the urgent need to for research to find a cure.
Child Bereavement UK
Child Bereavement UK (CBUK) helps families to rebuild their lives when a child grieves or when a child dies. The charity supports children and young people (up to the age of 25) when someone important to them has died or is not expected to live, and parents and the wider family when a baby or child of any age dies or is dying. CBUK provides training to professionals in health and social care, education, the emergency services and the voluntary and corporate sectors, equipping them to provide the best possible care to bereaved families.
Niccolo’s Light
In September 2022, Niccolò, freshly graduated from high school, carrying an armful of academic and sport awards, headed to Babson College with new horizons unfurling. Positive and popular, surrounded and adored by the most loving family and community of close friends, the shock of a sudden DIPG diagnosis was seismic.
Niccolò embarked on his treatment with maturity beyond his 19 years, together with an unbridled vision and strong focus to heal. He and his family travelled on a path that is impossible for us to imagine. Niccolò undertook all that was handed to him with his usual radiance, such grace, and in the way of a deeply evolved human, he seized life in full presence. He spoke only of his health and healing and love for all, from a seemingly endless wellspring.
During his last months, with his motto “La vida is beautiful”, Niccolò was energised and motivated to create a foundation to help children and their families affected by the brutal and rapid DIPG.
With his clear intention - “I’m gonna fight for the kids now” - he was successful in raising significant funds. It is from this initiative, Niccolo’s Light Foundation continues.
The foundation is the light that Nico was and still is, offering support and experiences to children and their families in their race against time; shining into the depths and darkness that they face with this diagnosis.
Niccolò’s Light will one day celebrate the breakthrough steps in research.
It is our honour and privilege as Tara Getty Foundation to support Niccolò’s Light Foundation in memory of our beloved friend.
THE HARD FACTS
• DIPG is the abbreviation of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma.
• DIPG is a type of brain tumour found in the area of the brain stem called the pons (near the top and in the centre of the brain).
• It is completely unknown as to why it occurs.
• DIPG is a rare and aggressive cancer.
• It is not possible to surgically remove this cancer.
• Current treatment is limited and cannot cure DIPG.
• The survival rate is approximately a year and often less.
• DIPG cancer primarily affects children aged 5-10 years old.
• 30-40 children are diagnosed each year in the UK.
• 200-300 cases are diagnosed each year in the USA.
Tom’s Trust
Tom's Trust is the UK's only charity dedicated to providing mental health support to children and young people, with brain and central nervous system tumours, and their families. The charity believes that every child and young person with a brain tumour should have access to the mental health support that they need, as well as their loved ones. Approximately 500 children aged 0-19 are diagnosed with a brain tumour each year. Many experience serious mental health issues as a result of their tumour, and 62% of those who survive will then live with life-long disabilities. Tom’s Trust’s clinical psychologists support hundreds of children and young people, and thousands of family members, within hospitals in the East, North-East, North-West, and Thames Valley; helping them from diagnosis, through brutal treatment and as they return to life at home.
