In Sues Name

In Sue’s Name was founded in 2014 by David Taylor in memory of his beloved daughter Sue Blasotta, who died in 2011 of brain tumours.

Sue was devoted to her husband Joe and their children Sasha and Daniel. She adored her career, first in recruitment with Reed Employment and then caring for children and parent contact at St Ignatius College. But she was also passionate about raising funds for cancer research, having lost several family members to the disease including her grandma and grandad. She took part in five 5k Race For Life runs at Trent Park in North London, as well as completing a sky dive — despite being terrified of heights.

Sue was diagnosed with three lesions on the brain in November 2010 and died just six weeks later, facing death with tremendous courage while leaving two young children without a mother. Over 800 people attended her funeral.

Brain tumours are especially tragic as they tend to strike young people and, although brain cancer is a bigger killer of people under 40 than any other form of cancer and that incidence is rising by 2 per cent a year, brain tumour research accounts for less than 1% of government funding.

The scale of the disease was brought home to all of us when two other families from the same parish suffered a similar loss at around the time that Sue died.

It seemed important than that In Sue’s Name should be set up to honour Sue’s memory and legacy by campaigning to change that, and with brain cancers continuing to increase year on year, it seems even more urgent now.

Vital research is now being carried out into treatment for brain tumours at the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence in the Blizard Institute, part of Queen Mary University of London in Whitechapel.

This gives hope to us all, but research for brain tumours remains desperately underfunded.

In Sue’s Name aims to raise £1 million by 2027 towards this vital research.