Lymphoma cancers are the fifth most common type of cancer in the UK.

The Julian Starmer-Smith Lymphoma Fund supports important research into these blood cancers - providing funding for sample storage and analysis to help with a number of research projects that aim to identify how patients will respond to different treatments. Dr Graham Collins details more of this work below.

The fund, which is part of Oxford Hospitals Charity (registered charity number 1175809), was created by the Starmer-Smith family, in memory of their son Julian, to support research taking place at the Oxford Cancer Centre in the Churchill Hospital.

To make a donation today or fundraise in support of this fund please follow the links below.

When donating please ensure you mention the Julian Starmer-Smith Lymphoma Fund in the information area. 

DONATE BUTTON    FUNDRAISE FOR US

If you would like to talk to someone about your support please call 01865 743 444 or email [email protected]

Alternatively you can send a cheque marked: 'Oxford Hospitals Charity' to:

Unipart House, Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2PG.

Please also include a cover note mentioning the Starmer-Smith fund name and with your name and address so that we can confirm receipt and thank you for your kind donation.

LATEST NEWS:

MUSIC FESTIVAL SUPPORT

We are delighted that the music festival, Rokefest, chose the Julian Starmer-Smith Lymphoma Fund to benefit from their event, in memory of much-loved local, Ashley Jones.

Rokefest took take place at the Home Sweet Home pub in South Oxfordshire in May 2022, raising over £17,000 - a record-breaking amount. Read the full news story here

RESEARCH UPDATE FROM DR GRAHAM COLLINS, February 2022

'Currently one of the biggest projects we have is for funding a biobanker which enables a critical piece of research looking into whether we can predict which patients are going to respond well to a immunotherapy drug in patients with relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma.

If we can use the right drug for the right person, we can enable them to proceed to potentially curative therapy with a stem cell transplant more safely and effectively.

Other recent research supported by the fund includes a large project which has helped redefine the standard of care medicines given to patients at risk of relapsing with high-grade lymphoma in the brain or spinal cord. This work has saved some patients from receiving a toxic intervention that won't benefit them.

We have many plans in Oxford to expand lymphoma research into numerous areas: investigating novel approaches to the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma, detecting lymphoma relapse early using blood tests rather than scans and using large datasets to understand the experience of lymphoma patients before their diagnosis is made in primary care. All this however takes funding which the Starmer-Smith can help with. 

We remain incredibly grateful to those who donate and fundraise so generously to support this important work.'

Dr Graham Collins, MBBS FRCP FRCPath DPhil, Consultant Haematologist, Lymphoma and SACT lead, NIHR BRC Senior Clinical Research Fellow