Children's Health / 9 September, 2025 / Ellie Thompson
On this week’s episode, we’re joined by Louise Fox, a mother who has turned unimaginable personal loss into a powerful force for change. Louise’s son George was a bright, animal-loving 12-year-old when he began having headaches that were repeatedly dismissed as harmless. Eleven months later, he died from an aggressive brain tumour. In the years since, Louise has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for Brain Tumour Research, supported the Tessa Jowell Foundation and co-founded the Angel Mums collective to improve paediatric palliative care. She’s now a leading voice in Brain Cancer Justice, a campaign demanding serious government investment and better care for brain cancer patients.
We’ll talk to Louise about how she and her family navigated those first terrifying weeks of misdiagnosis, what she learned about the shortcomings of current treatments and why she’s fighting to make genome sequencing and clinical trials available to every child with a brain tumour. We’ll hear about George’s character and the community of “Gorgeous George” supporters who’ve kept his memory alive, and ask Louise what policy changes she believes could help transform brain cancer from terminal to treatable.
Sign the petition for Brain Cancer Justice.
Louise Fox is a devoted mother of three – Jamie, George and Issy – and wife to her childhood sweetheart, Matt. A former training manager by profession, she describes her family life as “pretty perfect” until April 2021, when their 12-year-old middle child, George, suddenly developed a severe headache. Despite multiple visits to the GP, optician and A&E, his symptoms were repeatedly dismissed as nothing serious. Eleven months later, the same GP would certify his death from an aggressive brain tumour at home. Watching their bright, animal-loving son endure countless treatments and operations only to lose him remains the defining tragedy of Louise’s life.
Since George’s death, Louise has channelled her grief into action. She and Matt have raised almost £140,000 for Brain Tumour Research and nearly £30,000 for their local hospice to refurbish its cold room for bereaved families. She has become an outspoken advocate for improved diagnosis and care, supporting the Tessa Jowell Foundation and funding training programmes in paediatric palliative care.
As a founding member of the Angel Mums collective, she has helped raise more than £160,000 for the Tessa Jowell Foundation and seed-funded a new Children’s Centre of Excellence programme designed to link neuro-oncology centres across the UK and standardise the care children receive.
Louise now campaigns for several brain tumour charities and recently joined Brain Cancer Justice to push for better research funding and treatment options. Determined that no other family should experience what hers has, she uses her platform to demand government investment, raise public awareness and support other parents facing the unimaginable.
Brain Cancer Justice (BCJ) is a coalition of patients, families and advocates committed to addressing what they see as a long?ignored crisis. They point out that brain cancer is the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40 in the UK, yet receives only a fraction of overall cancer research funding. An estimated 88,000 people are currently living with a brain tumour and another 12,000 are diagnosed each year—around 33 families every day receiving devastating news. Survival rates have improved little over recent decades; more than 87?% of patients die within five years, and for those with glioblastoma the rate is 95?%. Only a small fraction of patients have access to genome sequencing or clinical trials, and the UK ranks poorly among developed countries for five?year brain cancer survival.
BCJ argues that successive governments have failed to deliver on their funding promises; only part of the £40?million pledged for brain tumour research has actually been spent. Their campaign seeks to transform a brain cancer diagnosis from “terminal to treatable” by urging ministers to release all pledged funds, increase research investment, mandate genome sequencing for all brain tumour patients and accelerate diagnostic and treatment pathways. They emphasise that behind the statistics are real people—parents pressing for scans, partners clinging to hope and children waiting for treatment—and warn that without urgent action, patients will continue to die while other cancers see steady advances.
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