Cancer research fundraiser ‘Zero Sense of Tumour’ raises £50k for charity

The family of a young woman who died of a brain tumour just months after her wedding have donated £50,000 towards cancer research after a fundraiser named ‘Zero Sense of Tumour’.

Charlotte Nicol, 32, of Hampstead, Camden, died last month from a brain tumour the size of an orange - just 13 weeks after being diagnosed, and seven months after getting married.

Friends, family and colleagues poured in donations to the GoFundMe page she launched from her hospital bed, named ‘Zero Sense of Tumour’.

Now her widower James has donated the £50,000 raised to Cancer Research UK to help fund scientific advances in fighting the disease.

James, 33, said: “Charlotte was incredibly kind and caring and spent a lot of her free time helping other people.

“She set up the GoFundMe page the day after her first brain surgery - she just felt she needed to do something.

“And Charlotte was adamant that any money donated would be used for research and treatments for all cancers, not just brain tumours which are relatively rare.

“She wanted the money to help as many people as possible.”

After growing up in Leyland, Lancashire, aged 20, Charlotte travelled to Australia and New Zealand, where she met James, from Auckland, in 2016.

The couple got engaged in 2019 and moved back to the UK, living in London, where Charlotte worked at PwC and James as a planner at a media agency.

“We got married in December in a small ceremony in Antigua,” James said.

“International travel restrictions made it difficult to plan anything so we just said, ‘why not?’

“We went and did it, just the two of us, and it was brilliant.”

However, the newlyweds soon came down with Covid-19 - and despite them both recovering, Charlotte continued to suffer from headaches.

James said: “We just put them down to long Covid for a while.

“She was still functioning brilliantly at this point, just a headache that got worse and worse.

“Initially her GP said it could be down to stress and to take it easy.

“Then it all happened stupidly quickly.”

On April 5, Charlotte suddenly began feeling dizzy and struggling to walk.

She was seeing lights, tripping over and suffered numbness down one side of her body.

A CT scan revealed a tumour the size of an orange and Charlotte was diagnosed with a grade four astrocytoma.

In the space of six weeks, she underwent five brain operations including a craniotomy – during which she had to be awake – that removed 95% of the tumour.

But as she was due to start radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment in June, a scan showed the tumour had grown back significantly.

Tragically, the couple were forced to confront the end.

“We went from a 12-month treatment plan, to another one which would be the shortest course of extreme radiotherapy we possibly could, to another plan where all that we could do was to try and maximise Charlotte’s quality of life, all within a few days,” James said.

He added: “From there, Charlotte didn’t want to continue with the treatment as it was just prolonging life in a way that was incompatible with her values and way of living and enjoying life.

“When they did the biopsy, they said the tumour would have probably been growing slowly for years.”

After organising her own funeral, Charlotte said goodbye to her loved ones before passing away three weeks later, on July 7, at the Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead.

James said: “I can’t do anything to change what has happened, but this is one thing I can do.

“I hope as many people as possible see the GoFundMe and continue to donate, however much they can. Every penny counts to help research for everyone affected by cancer.”

Charlotte also encouraged people to leave money to Cancer Research UK in their will.

Chris Gethin, from the charity, said: “We’re incredibly grateful to James and every single person who contributed to this generous donation in Charlotte’s memory.

“The overwhelming support the Go Fund Me page has received is a testament to how many people’s lives Charlotte touched.

“One in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime and every step we make towards beating cancer relies on vital donations.”

Visit the GoFundMe page to make a donation in memory of Charlotte or go to Cancer Research for more information on offering support.