‘We can get a man on the moon, but we can’t cure brain tumours’: Antiques Roadshow expert Theo Burrell, 36, living with terminal cancer makes heartbreaking plea for more funding amid treatment

Antiques Roadshow expert Theo Burrell has made a heartbreaking plea for more funding for brain cancer research while treating her terminal illness.

The 36-year-old was diagnosed with the incurable condition last year after being taken to the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh with a migraine, which she has suffered since June 2022.

Ms. Burrell, a decorative arts and antiques specialist, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a fast-growing and aggressive brain tumor, just as she was adjusting to life as a new mother.

Despite months of grueling treatment to shrink the tumor in an effort to extend her life, the TV personality has been told her cancer will return.

She previously said, “It was devastating when I got my diagnosis at age 35, when my son was just one year old. Everything had changed from one day to the next.

“Suddenly I had gone from a healthy person in the middle of my life with a new baby to an incurable cancer with maybe a year or two left to live.”

Mrs Burrell, a specialist in decorative arts and antiques, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a fast-growing and aggressive brain tumor

Despite months of grueling treatment to shrink the tumor in an effort to extend her life, the TV personality was told her cancer will return

Now she has spoken out about the lack of funding for brain cancer research and signed a petition launched by Brain Tumor Research, hoping to raise awareness and encourage others to do the same.

‘I signed the petition and encourage others to do the same,” she said on the Brain Tumor Research website.

“It’s hard not to be upset about the whole experience. Brain tumors are so underfunded and have such a poor prognosis. Brain cancer seems to be a few steps ahead of us, outsmarting us.

“We can put a man on the moon, but we can’t cure brain tumors; It’s so frustrating that funding is so thin. So many young people get brain tumors, so we have to take care of the next generation. Signing the petition is so important to get the 100,000 signatures, otherwise people don’t seem to care.’

The petition calls on the government to release £110 million in funding in an effort to increase national investment in brain tumor research to £35 million a year by 2028.

She hopes to collect 100,000 signatures by October 31 to spark a parliamentary debate on the issue.

At the time of writing, 32,288 signatures had been received.