Cancer victim and brain tumour research campaigner Anna Swabey is to be made an honorary member of Newton Aycliffe Rotary Club and nominated for a top UK citizenship award.
Twenty-four-year-old Anna, who lives in Aycliffe, has been honoured for her work in supporting people with brain tumours, raising awareness of the disease, and fund-raising to enable more research into the cause of brain cancers.
As well as becoming the youngest member of Newton Aycliffe Club, Anna has also been nominated for a UK Rotary Young Citizen of the Year award which could win her a substantial sum for her chosen cancer research charity.
A delighted Anna (pictured above with Mayor Mary Dalton and Mayoral consort Michael Dalton) said “I feel so proud that the Rotarians think I deserve such recognition.”
Anna is currently battling an aggressive brain tumour. A little over a year ago, she was given as little as three months to live – three years at the most. But she brushed aside the nightmare effects of two major brain operations and months of still-ongoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy and launched an all-out national campaign to raise awareness of brain tumours, to support victims of the disease and to generate cash for more brain tumour research.
Anna began to write a regular blog and her fund-raising projects have already generated over £40,000. She made such an impression on the powers-that-be that she was invited to London to meet members of the government’s new Petitions Committee to share her views on the action needed to tackle the scourge of brain tumours.
This week, she learned that the online government petition to gain greater funding for brain tumour research had attracted more than 100,000 signatures and, as a direct result, Parliament would now debate the matter. Anna has hailed the result as ‘an incredible step forward and an amazing development for democracy’.
“Whatever happens it will be too late for me but others might benefit,” she says.
Newton Aycliffe Rotary Club President Denese Cartwright commented: “Anna made a tremendous impression when she came and talked to us about her campaign. She deserves all the support she can get because she is a truly remarkable person.”
Footnote: Anna is currently working hard to support the 16-strong team of runners who will be supporting her fund-raising campaign for brain tumour research by competing in the Paris marathon. Anna originally planned to join them but was forced to withdraw on medical advice.
To the delight of everyone in her life, however, Anna is now equally busy working on another major project – planning her wedding in the North East later this year to boyfriend Andrew Bell.
Anna (right) with Mayor Mary Dalton and her son Michael who invited Anna to speak at the Rotary Club meeting.
