Pete Waterman targets 'almost impossible' cancer cure

A legendary music producer whose son died of brain cancer has said there needs to be more of a focus on finding a cure.

Pete Waterman's son Paul died in 2005 at the age of 33, and the producer who helped launch the music careers of Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Rick Astley, believes he had an aggressive brain tumour known as glioblastoma.

Waterman is now a patron of Brain Tumour Research and on a visit to its research laboratory in Nottingham on Wednesday he said he did not want anyone else to go through what he did.

The government announced the same day it was taking steps to speed up turning brain cancer research into treatment.

Waterman, who scored dozens of chart hits as part of the Stock, Aitken and Waterman production team, said: "This is quite a brutal cancer.

"To watch your child deteriorate in front of your eyes for no apparent reason, it's pretty, pretty frightening."

His son deteriorated over several months in 2004, although at the time Pete did not know the cause.

He ended up in hospital and as his parents were speaking to doctors, who had said there was nothing more they could do for him, he choked on a sandwich.

He was put on life support but died early in January 2005.

"I don't want anybody to go through what I had to go through," Waterman said.

"A cure - that's all we want.

"It's easy to say, it's almost bloody impossible to achieve - but we'll say it anyway."

He spoke to an expert in brain cancer and believes Paul likely had a glioblastoma tumour.

On Wednesday, he visited the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at the University of Nottingham, which is searching for a cure for this type of cancer.

"You can't have a lab like this if you haven't got funding," he said. "And the more labs like this we've got, the more chance we've got of saving lives."

Speaking shortly before the government announcement, he said state funding would help, but more joined-up work and leadership in the research field was also needed.

"Instead of this scattergun approach, we've got to have a bullet approach that says we have to cure this problem," he said.

Brain Tumour Research said brain cancer was the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40, but only about 26% of the funding for research into it came from the government.

It has called for an increase in the national investment in research to at least £45m a year by 2029, saying this would close the gap with funding levels seen for other cancer types such as leukaemia, where it said "sustained investment over recent decades has made a huge impact on survival rates".

Charlotte Curnow, from Watnall in Nottinghamshire, has a grade 4 glioblastoma tumour.

The 56-year-old was originally given 12 to 18 months to live, and although that was three years ago, she said she still lives with a "ticking time bomb".

"Research takes many, many years - and we know it works because it's worked for many other cancers that have had investment," she said.

"I don't think whatever happens now is going to massively improve my prognosis, but it's about the generations to come.

"I know a friend of mine's got a little girl who's only two and she's been diagnosed with one.

"So it's for her and for all the other children out there that haven't got a long life to live.

"We just need to start somewhere because at the moment it's really poor."

On Wednesday swimmer Archie Goodburn, who was diagnosed with three inoperable brain tumours two years ago, met Prime Minister Andy Burnham to discuss funding.

That afternoon, Downing Street announced four steps which it said meant people living with brain cancer "will get a faster route from research to treatment".

These include setting up an expert review, reporting in the next three months, to assess what is holding progress back.

That will lead to a national action plan to get new treatments out of the lab faster.

A new national brain cancer clinical lead will also be appointed to lead the work.

Burnham said: "Archie is an inspiration to us all, and I am determined to deliver the change patients and their families deserve.

"He has spoken passionately about the need for change on brain cancer, and he's right: progress hasn't been good enough, here or anywhere else.

"Families facing this disease can't afford to wait."

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