Our super-fit mum wanted to help others with cancer so join our campaign and raise some cash
Family of late Sun fitness expert Nicki Waterman want you to help boost research in the UK
SUN fitness expert Nicki Waterman loved her daily run on her local heath.
The super-fit 53-year-old’s passion was outdoor running — something she enjoyed until three months before her death from a brain tumour.
Worthy legacy ... Sun fitness expert Nicki Waterman, who died following a fight with cancer, wanted to help others realise their health potential
Post your #SweatySelfie on your social media accounts. Nominate some mates and text SNAP53 £3 to 70070 to donate to Brain Tumour Research in memory of Nicki Waterman.
Now, two weeks after she passed away, her family want to fulfil her dying wish and raise money to help others with brain tumours.
Her daughter Alex Thrussell, 31, and son Harry Waterman, 30, are urging you to take a “sweaty selfie” after working out, then upload it to social media and donate to the charity Brain Tumour Research in an effort to find a cure for brain cancers.
Denise Van Outen, All Saints singer Nicole Appleton, TV presenter Kate Thornton and Emma Bunton are among many who have posted their support online.
Alex said: “Mummy used to go running every morning. It was her bread and butter. She loved it.
“We now want to make her proud and raise as much money as we can — and nothing is more appropriate than fundraising by getting people moving.
“Just one per cent of the Government’s annual spend goes on brain tumour research. But with YOUR help, you could help us smash our £1million target.
“That would be enough to run one of Brain Tumour Research’s centres for an entire year, helping scientists make positive steps towards a cure.
“Mummy loved the sweaty selfie idea and cried when I told her that’s what we wanted to do.”
Brave Nicki found out she had glioblastoma in May last year and was told she had only ten months to live. But she trialled special immunotherapy drugs, called Avastin and Ipilimumab, designed to help the immune system detect and attack the cancer, with traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments.
In February she was told her cancer had gone — only for it to return with a vengeance three months later.
Alex said: “It was heart-breaking seeing the best mum in the world become weaker and weaker.
“She was just so healthy and active but the tumour pressed on parts of her brain that affected how her legs worked. She lost mobility in her left leg and had to walk with a stick.
“Her eyesight was affected and she had to prise her left eye open with her hands when she woke up on a morning.
“A few weeks before she died she could only get around by leaning on people. It just seemed so cruel for someone who loved nothing more than being on her feet and running around.”
Every year in the UK 16,000 people are diagnosed with brain tumours. Only 20 per cent survive beyond five years.
In yesterday’s Sun pop star John Newman revealed that he is facing life-saving surgery to remove a tumour from his brain, four years after receiving treatment for another growth.
But he is looking on the bright side. “They’re going to get rid of it this time,” he says.
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With glioblastoma, the type of tumour Nicki had, there are 2,200 people diagnosed annually but just 20 per cent are alive a year later.
Nicki passed away in her sleep at the Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead, North London, at 11.20pm on August 11, just 15 months after she was diagnosed.
Alex, mum to William, three, and Peta, two, recalled: “The night she died the hospice phoned and said her breathing had changed. It was shallow and erratic.
“I rushed to get there but arrived ten minutes after she passed.
“She was still warm and looked so peaceful. She was a beautiful person inside and out. I am glad she is not in pain any more but she shouldn’t have gone so soon.”
Harry, who also arrived at her bedside just after courageous Nicki passed away, said: “She looked so beautiful. Her face was relaxed and I took comfort in the fact she was no longer in pain and confined to her bed. I’ve experienced a rollercoaster of emotions in the past few days — but I need to channel that to help fulfil Mum’s wishes to help other brain tumour patients.
“Mum was so full of energy. She was loving, kind, generous and warm-hearted. You couldn’t help but like her. She inspired hundreds of people to turn their lives around, helping them lose weight and get fit and confident. She was just this petite bundle of energy that was impossible to dislike. She always put other people first and, despite her brain tumour, would always say she was the luckiest woman in the world to have been blessed with the life she had.
“So now we want to turn her death into a positive and create a long-lasting legacy to change the devastating prognosis of brain tumour patients.”
Alex and Harry have applied to set up a charity in their mother’s memory, called the Nicki Waterman Foundation, to help raise vital funds for brain tumour research.
Harry said: “We had extra time with our lovely mum because she trialled a new treatment. Sadly, it didn’t work the second time round. But that’s why we need more funding, to develop new treatments and help more patients live longer — and even be cured from this horrible illness. She has shown what a difference new treatments make.
“It bought her extra time with us and allowed us to make many more precious memories. But we can’t stop investing. Scientists need more money to help further their understanding of brain tumours, develop new treatments and improve existing ones.
“We need to see more clinical trials taking place, so treatments that worked for Mum first time round can be improved and become available on the NHS.” Dr Kieran Breen, director of research for Brain Tumour Research, said: “Research into brain tumours has historically received a fraction of the amount awarded to other cancers such as leukaemia and breast cancer.
“We know there are lots of potential therapies out there, ranging from drugs to gene therapies, that could dramatically improve outcomes if only they could get off the shelf and into clinical practice. For this, we need funding.
“The campaign has enormous potential to really make a difference.” Sue Farrington Smith, chief executive of the charity, added: “Nicki did so much to raise awareness of brain tumours and the need for research funding when she told her story in The Sun.
“We are full of admiration for Nicki’s family who want to turn their loss into something that will make a difference to those diagnosed with a brain tumour every year.
“I know Nicki would be proud. We will always remember this courageous and beautiful woman, taken far too soon.”
Alex added: “With YOUR help, we could stop brain tumour patients dying before their time.
“So, please, dig deep and donate to save the lives of people like our lovely mummy.”
Brain Tumour Research
FOUNDED in 2009, Brain Tumour Research supports the UK’s largest collaboration of laboratory-based brain tumour scientists – working at Queen Mary University of London, Imperial College London, Plymouth University and the University of Portsmouth. They are working together to gain a greater understanding of brain tumours and to identify ways in which they can be treated.
'It's a case of waiting'
FORMER paediatric nurse Gemma Edgar, 31, of Colchester, Essex, was initially told she had a bad migraine. She was later diagnosed with stage-four glioblastoma.
Gemma, mum to Dylan, four, and two-year-old Noah, says:
"I was immersed in life as a mum when my GP suspected my intense head pain was a migraine. It kept getting worse so I went to A&E, where a scan detected a mass in my right frontal lobe.
"The tumour was removed and found to be cancerous. Though the tumour has gone, cancer cells are likely to remain in my brain. It is now a case of waiting.
"I still have treatment options remaining but I don’t know how successful they will be – which is why YOU need to upload your sweaty selfie in memory of Nicki Waterman and donate to Brain Tumour Research."
'Seizure-free for a year'
BEN LINDON, 37, was diagnosed with grade-two glioblastoma, aged 28, after collapsing and having a seizure while jogging. The ex-firefighter, from Worcester, has chemotherapy every four weeks to stop his tumour growing.
Ben – dad to Martha, three, and two-year-old Sid – says:
"I’ve always been fit and played sports so was stunned to find out I had incurable cancer. I started radiotherapy and chemotherapy but continued to have seizures, some lasting as long as 35 minutes.
"Medication means I have been seizure-free for a year. My tumour has shrunk but I don’t know how long my tumour will be controlled by monthly chemo sessions.
"Doctors have no idea how much time I have left. Treatment options are limited. But I want to be here for my kids.
"Take a sweaty selfie and donate to Brain Tumour Research."
'Not enough treatments'
SALLY HALL, 38, lost her son Skye, five, two years ago after side-effects of his treatment for his brain tumour killed him. She set up Blue Skye Thinking to raise funds for research.
Sally lives in Oxford with husband Andrew, 43, a teacher, Jesse, four, and Flynn, 11 months. She says:
"Skye had medulloblastoma, a type of childhood cancerous brain tumour. He had an operation to remove as much of it as possible, then chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He was in isolation for two months.
The tumour went but a month later he had pins and needles in his hands and feet. The white matter in his brain had been obliterated by his treatment. He died a year after his diagnosis.
If doctors had a better understanding of brain tumours and more treatments were available, Skye and Nicki might still be with us today."
