2024-03-31-accounts

2023-2024

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024
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CONTENTS

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||| |---|---| |Chair's report|3| |CEO's report|4| |Report of the Trustees|5-37| |Strategic report|6-30| |Independent auditor’s report|38| |Statement of financial activities|42| |Balance sheet|43| |Cash flow statement|44| |Notes to the accounts|45-59| |The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024|

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CHAIR’S REPORT

This has been a very active year for The Charity. Among other achievements, we spent nearly £5.5m on cutting-edge research grants, launched a hugely successful policy campaign, and supported more than 12,000 people. This was all enabled by our most successful fundraising year to date, with our community raising an astonishing £14m towards our mission of helping everyone with a brain tumour live a longer, better life.

Notably, our income from community fundraising events, such as walks, runs, dinners and birthdays, achieved an incredible £2.4m. We fielded our biggest London Marathon team so far, our wonderful high-profile partner Wickes raised over £1m, and there were countless other milestones and highlights to celebrate - such as Team Syren tackling Everest in the Alps, a gruelling challenge inspired by our former trustee Rob Ritchie, to raise money for The Everest Centre for Research into Paediatric Low Grade Brain Tumours.

As we head into 2024-25, this strong fundraising outcome allows us to continue delivering excellence in research across a three-pronged strategy of creating new knowledge, accelerating new treatments and enhancing quality of life. It will also allow us to continue providing specialist support to adults, young people, children and families, and, as we build awareness and raise our voices for change, strengthen ties with policymakers to drive change - which will improve treatment and care for even more people affected by this awful disease.

It's crucial that new treatments reach patients sooner, and we were delighted to see a positive outcome of our efforts throughout the year in this area when, in April 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) made dabrafenib and trametinib available through NHS prescribing - the first new treatment in decades for children with certain types of glioma. Research we funded laid the early groundwork for this breakthrough, and we ensured the voices of our community were heard during the NICE appraisal process.

But we must ensure that progress like this continues into the future. It's vital that we attract the brightest minds to neurooncology and encourage them to remain in the field through investment in talented early-career researchers, like our two Junior Fellows, Dr Spencer Watson and Dr Tyler Miller, whom we recently awarded £600,000 each to fund their research for a further four years, marking the second step in our Future Leaders programme.

I want to thank our CEO, Dr Michele Afif, for expertly steering us through her first year whilst implementing our communitycreated strategy, Living Longer and Better, a unique and special collaboration that will serve as our guiding light through to 2030. I’d also like to thank our Senior Leadership Team and wider staff for their incredible passion and skill in taking The Charity’s work forward. And finally, of course, my deepest thanks to our dedicated Trustees, wonderful donors and partners for coming together and achieving what they do. Thank you so much.

I greatly look forward to working alongside you all, and seeing our hard work bear fruit in the years to come.

Thank you,

Jack Morris CBE Chair of Trustees

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

CEO’S REPORT

It has been my privilege to take the helm of a charity which is already delivering impactful change for the community it serves and, as I join this amazing team, I am delighted to see that this year has been no different.

Brain tumours are relentless - harming people young and old almost beyond measure. In response, our charity is equally relentless in its determination to make the goal of Living Longer and Better a reality, and 2023/24 is marked out by numerous achievements which reflect our commitment to that guiding principle.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the depth and breadth of our research programme. Delivering Accelerating a Cure is so much more than building a set of individual awards - it’s our way of truly finding and then funding the very best work and brightest minds from across the world in our drive to transform the whole research landscape. Just some of those leaps forward this year include investing £4.5m into three new Quest for Cures grants, and the continued progress of The Everest Centre’s transformative work developing pioneering new treatments for children with low grade gliomas, following our further £5m commitment (2022-2027).

This level of ambition takes long-term financial investment. It’s a commitment that can only be met through the generosity of our donors and the tirelessness of a fundraising team that doesn’t just think in terms of amounts raised but how to build that fund in solidarity with our community.

I believe this year’s flagship event, The Twilight Walk, perfectly captures that sense of connectedness that underpins and motivates our work, bringing our whole community together in ways that moved, supported and inspired. It was also wonderful to see our supporters share their stories, raise awareness and even win awards. Showing that age is no barrier, nine-year-old Ravi Adelekan has raised

over £100,000 so far for us and our friends at Brainstrust, and the incredible Harry Smith, 13, who lost his sister to a brain tumour, won JustGiving’s 2023 Young Fundraiser of the Year Award.

Our desire to really listen to our community about how they experience the impact of a brain tumour diagnosis is at the very heart of all we do. This year, our Support team helped 12,189 people, with 425 people entering our specialist counselling service and, through our Money and Benefits clinic, 550 people finding more than £1.3 million in new benefits. Membership of our peer support groups is up to 32,200 and we had at least 1.1 million active users of support on our main website and Better Safe Than Tumour.

This year is particularly special. During March 2024 our Policy team took those insights – and so many more – and amplified them into a hugely powerful and successful call for a National Brain Tumour Strategy. Supported by more than 52,000 people, I believe this creates a mandate to work even more collaboratively with others to influence for change at the very highest levels.

And as ever, our guiding light is our freshly launched, community-created strategy Living Longer and Better: 2023-30 . This is a living document, drawn from real experience, which gives us not only our direction but provides a blueprint on how to work so we are as effective and successful as possible. It is both exhilarating and humbling to join a team which is unashamedly collaborative, ambitious, bold and innovative - actively harnessing those values to bring our strategy to life. This year, as we move into full implementation, I know without doubt that the Living Longer and Better principles will serve as a constant reminder of the need to keep seeking maximal impact if we are to have any chance of defeating this devastating group of diseases.

Thank you,

Dr Michele Afif CEO

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

OUR GOALS AND VALUES

OUR GOALS

Our vision is for people diagnosed with a brain tumour to live longer and better lives, and our goals are our blueprint for getting there. Simply put, if something doesn’t help us achieve one of these goals, we know that it’s not the right direction for us.

We’ve set ourselves goals that are unashamedly ambitious as this is the only way we’ll see a real and lasting difference. We want to:

OUR VALUES

Our values underpin everything that we do, they define what we believe and guide our actions every day.

The way we work is always:

COMMUNITY FIRST

We put the community’s needs first, ensuring our work is informed by those with experience and that they are the driving force behind our decisions. We include everyone, amplifying their voices and uniting in our shared purpose to create change.

• double survival in the UK

• halve the harm that brain tumours have on quality of life in the UK

COLLABORATIVE

We know that we’re stronger together, so we choose to lean on each other, share openly and utilise expertise and knowledge wherever it exists. We seek out and support diverse perspectives, operate without ego and are part of a connected eco-system that everyone can join.

BOLD

We are unapologetically ambitious and true to ourselves. We’ll be brave and think bigger – as there’s just no time to waste. We’ll be confident and relentless in challenging the status quo, even when that means making difficult decisions. We’re determined, focused and unstoppable.

INNOVATIVE

We are creative and adopt a growth mindset, always using our experience and imaginations to find smarter and more effective ways to propel progress. We’re not afraid to think differently, find new ways to solve problems and be agile in ‘testing and learning’, so we can move at pace in pursuit of our vision.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

STRATEgiC REPORT

EMBODYING EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH

Brain tumours remain the biggest cancer killer of the under-40s, reducing life expectancy by 27 years on average – the highest of any cancer. But even survivors or those with low grade disease often face harms to long-term function, mental health and quality of life. Our research strategy, Accelerating a Cure, underpins our determination to address this, with a core commitment to spend 50% of our annual income on research awards every single year.

We’ve pledged to commit at least £50m by 2030, creating a platform for muchneeded investment into the best, most pioneering research.

But we don’t just want to fund research projects – we need to transform the research landscape to build research capacity, deliver clinical trials and drive translational research which pushes innovation from concept to clinic.

To build capacity, our innovative Future Leaders programme ensures the brightest minds are attracted to the sector and stay working within it. It not only supports excellent researchers just beginning their careers to establish themselves as leading experts, but also inspires more researchers to join our movement, encourages them to remain working within the field and will exponentially create and grow enthusiasm for neuro-oncology. We’ve funded 10 Future Leaders so far, with more to be announced in the coming financial year.

We’re proud that our research funding is driving both global and UK research excellence and capacity, as collaboration is key to delivering community benefit. With your continued support, we’ll go further, faster until everyone with a brain tumour lives a longer, better life.

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COMMITTING CRUCIAL FUNDS

We were delighted to commit the funding we’d anticipated in the discovery research space this year, including £4.5m going towards three new Quest for Cures grants, £600,000 going to each of our two Junior Fellows (the second stage in our Future Leaders programme), and commitments of £150,000 each to two new Expanding Theories grants.

Our record fundraising total this year provides an exciting springboard for major investment into truly excellent research going into 2024-25. This year, we have focused on setting ourselves up for future investment, empowering our team to build on our research progress to date so we can continue to improve our knowledge of brain tumours and, most importantly, ensure this knowledge is translated into new treatments.

In January, we welcomed our new Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Simon Newman. With his background in cancer drug discovery, he is well placed to propel our research strategy, including our pioneering new Translational Awards (see below), and has been laying the groundwork for significant investment next year.

To overcome the challenge of translating promising research into actual clinical benefit we developed our new Translational Awards. These awards will fund key laboratory studies required to build data packages to help secure the subsequent significant funding for clinical trials. This is an exciting opportunity to develop a translational mindset within the research landscape to ensure the best ideas move from bench to bedside as efficiently as possible.

Our commitment to tackle key quality-oflife challenges is also taking shape, with a collaborative, idea-generating ‘sandpit’ planned, from which will emerge funding for novel solutions and interventions to combat the unmet needs of children and young adults living with a brain tumour diagnosis and its long-term effects.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

HIGHLIGHTS ACCELERATING NEW OF 2023/24 TREATMENTS

Advancing knowledge of childhood brain tumours

Progress continues following our further £5m commitment (2022-2027) to researchers at The Everest Centre for Research into Paediatric Low-Grade Gliomas. Established in the UK and Germany in 2017 with an initial £5m funding from us, The Centre is a landmark consortium, undertaking foundational work to further understanding of, and discover new treatments for, paediatric low grade gliomas.

At The Charity, we believe no tumour is benign. The side-effects of low grade gliomas and the current standard of care, which includes chemotherapy, radiotherapy and high-risk surgery, can cause lifelong and permanent harm. Improvements are sorely needed.

The first five years of funding led to fundamental changes in the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s classification of these tumours, seeing them gain their own category for the first time, as well as several new subtypes. Research also resulted in the discovery of novel drugs that may offer new treatment options for children.

Under the leadership of Dr David Jones, the team are now advancing their work into the epidemiology, genetics and molecular biology of paediatric low grade brain tumours, and the clinical trial that we helped set up, LOGGIC/FIREFLY-2, is well underway. This next round of funding will help advance knowledge of low grade brain tumours, how they behave in the body, how to better treat them and how to improve quality of life for children affected.

This pioneering research will allow scientists to accelerate progress towards finding more effective treatments for the disease and could be revolutionary in improving the lives of children living with low grade tumours.

Rob Ritchie, former Trustee, founder of Everest in the Alps, and father to Toby, who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour at the age of five.

Driving the quest for cures

In August, we announced the latest recipients of our Quest for Cures grants. Designed to foster collaboration, which is essential to accelerating cures, these grants award funding of up to £1.5m over five years and invest in teams with transformational research ideas, whose projects have gamechanging potential to push breakthroughs from bench to bedside.

Professor Martinez-Barbera at UCL will study senescent (non-dividing) cells in order to identify and develop new treatments for paediatric diffuse high-grade gliomas (PDHGGs), while Professor Marcel Kool at Princess Máxima Center, Utrecht, aims to advance our understanding of different types of medulloblastoma, one of the most common aggressive childhood brain tumours, in order to help develop more effective treatments.

Finally, Dr Jun Ishihara aims to engineer a cutting-edge immunotherapy drug that could prevent recurrent glioblastoma. So far, experimental models have been highly promising. His team will build upon this work, with the potential to take the treatment through to phase 1 clinical trials in humans.

Using teardrops to detect brain cancer early

One significant step-change award has been the £1.35m grant to fund the first ever The Brain Tumour Charity Chair of Translational Neuro-Oncology at The University of Manchester’s Cancer Research Centre (MCRC). Professor Petra Hamerlik has previously worked in industry so brings a translational mindset to all the projects she is working on, whether they be potential new treatments or innovative diagnostic technologies. One exciting piece of work emerging from her studies to date is the potential for using biomarkers in teardrops to detect brain tumours. Compared to the collection of blood or cerebrospinal fluid, successful tear collection could potentially be a risk-free way of detecting brain tumours and is non-invasive. The team have made promising progress so far and going forward, are focusing on validating and refining their technique.

Funding this inaugural appointment demonstrates our long-term commitment to developing new and innovative ways to improve survival and ensure a better quality of life for those affected by a brain tumour.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

Establishing a platform for new drug discovery

Our continued funding of the revolutionary Tessa Jowell BRAIN MATRIX platform, led by Professor Colin Watts, has resulted in more than 400 adults with gliomas being recruited, with 10 sites now open across England and Scotland. It aims to establish a new pathway for standard of care, using innovative technologies such as DNA sequencing and enabling enrolment into biomarker-driven trials.

Recruiting patients to trials is always a challenge, and BRAIN MATRIX has been no exception, with a slower start than we’d hoped. But these issues are now improving, and the challenges have pointed us towards further work we need to do to break down barriers to recruitment.

We’re so excited to be supporting this first-of-its-kind platform, which is paving the way for future drug treatments to be tested faster.

400 adults with gliomas recruited to the BRAIN MATRIX platform.

Trialling cannabinoids as a glioblastoma treatment

When the community told us they were interested in the potential of cannabinoids to not only relieve symptoms but also have a positive impact on survival, we listened!

This resulted in our pioneering ARISTOCRAT study, which opened in February 2023, to investigate whether combining nabiximols (Sativex) with chemotherapy can help extend the lives of people with recurrent glioblastoma.

As with all clinical trials, there have been challenges, with the opening of centres and consequently patient recruitment being slower than we had hoped, as well as the fact that, by the nature of the disease, patients recruited are often very unwell. However, we know there is huge interest from patients, with only very few who are eligible choosing not to participate in the trial. We’re really excited that this world-first trial could help extend survival for those diagnosed with this devastating disease, and we’re so grateful to everyone who has helped fund such an important study.

The challenges faced in setting up these trials again shows how urgently we need to improve and transform the research landscape in order to set crucial trials up for success. This work is informing our ongoing policy work as we push for the national changes brain tumour patients need (see page 12).

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ENHANCING QUALITY OF LIFE

PROPELLING TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH

2023 saw the completion of two of our funded quality-of-life projects, both of which have the potential to improve patients’ lives:

• Dr Sophie Thomas’s investigation into Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a psychological intervention incorporating CBT and mindfulness, produced positive results, with data showing that young people had better-rated quality of life, wellbeing, psychological flexibility and satisfaction with relationships.

• Professor Linda Sharp’s development of a self-management programme for adults with low grade brain tumours – a real unmet need - has resulted in the publication of a number of papers, from how to make self-management more effective for patients and the healthcare system, to a systematic review of the literature on quality of life among people with low and intermediate grade gliomas.

Translational research aims to bridge the lab and the clinic, translating discoveries into treatments available to patients. Sadly, there’s a funding gap in this type of research for brain tumours due to the difficulties of treating a complex and rare disease, including the challenge of bypassing the blood-brain barrier. Our co-created strategy clearly identified the need to plug this gap, so we’re committed to funding translational research to accelerate the development of crucial new treatments.

Our 2019 award to Professor Neil Carragher and his team in Edinburgh showcases our commitment to translation. The £2.96m fund over five years made in collaboration with Cancer Research UK for a total of £6.2m overall, has enabled an ambitious and long-term programme of work, which has so far screened more than 3,000 compounds for their potential efficacy against glioblastoma cells – all in hope of finding better ways to treat this terrible disease.

A number have shown potential and will be taken on to the next stages of the research. Alongside this, the team have identified two enzymes involved in cancer cells’ survival and are investigating different drug combinations that target these enzymes. They’ve also identified a number of different genes that could be involved in treatment resistance and will investigate these further to find which ones are most important and how we could combat them. Finally, the team aim to develop a chemical ‘courier’ to deliver the drug combinations, to try to overcome the blood-brain barrier.

This work has been made possible as a result of funds raised by The Emily Morris Fund.

r 3,000

compounds screened for their potential efficacy against glioblastoma cells.

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BUILDING FOUNDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Attracting and retaining the brightest minds

We are committed to enabling not only world-class excellence in the brain tumour research space, but also longterm inspiration to join the field, through investment in talented early-career researchers. This year marked the next step in our Future Leaders programme, with further awards of £600,000 over four years, each, for two of our most promising candidates.

£600,000 investment over four years for our Junior Fellows.

In April, having been so inspired and impressed by their passion and dedication, we were thrilled to award Dr Tyler Miller and Dr Spencer Watson our Junior Fellows grants to support their research for four more years!

Dr Miller is investigating why certain cells within gliomas become immunosuppressive and will seek ways to target this immunosuppression. He aims to make gliomas more sensitive to immunotherapy and potentially extend survival for those diagnosed.

Dr Watson is studying how cells interact with each other in glioblastoma tumours and their microenvironments. He aims to develop new and better treatments to fight tumour recurrence and extend survival.

Collaborating for cures

As a Charity, we strive to connect with people and other organisations, as well as with each other, to foster the growth of good ideas:

• We attend international conferences and support our researchers in presenting their work – for example in November 2023, Dr Veronica Rendo, who was funded by our Future Leaders programme in 2020, presented her findings at the Society for Neuro-Oncology Annual Meeting.

• We have Scientific Advisory Boards made up of internationally renowned scientific experts working in different areas of cancer research, ranging through basic, clinical, translational and quality-oflife research, as well as lay members personally affected by a brain tumour - ensuring our community’s interests remain at the forefront of our grant award process.

• We co-fund research. Just some examples are our joint funding with Cancer Research UK of Professor Neil Carragher’s translational research (above), and our recent collaboration with Brain Tumour Research, seeing money raised by our valued Supporter Group, Emily Oliver’s Fighting Fund, going towards a dedicated research project into diffuse midline gliomas.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

HIGHLIGHTS ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE OF 2023/24

Coming together to call for a National Brain Tumour Strategy

On 29 February 2024, 34 people from the brain tumour community – including some of our High Profile Supporters, researchers, volunteers, trustees and representatives from family-led charities and Supporter Groups - stood outside Westminster to launch our most high-profile policy campaign yet, It’s a No Brainer.

They let the world know about the desperate need for a National Brain Tumour Strategy and reminded people of the human lives behind the statistic that 34 people are diagnosed with a brain tumour every day in the UK.

The campaign urged people to sign our open letter to the Government calling for a National Brain Tumour Strategy.

Thanks to the support of the community, we hit more than 52,000 signatures in just six weeks!

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52,000

signatures in six weeks to our open letter calling for a National Brain Tumour Strategy.

This rallying cry clearly resonated, with politicians and parliamentarians across the devolved nations as well as colleagues in the brain tumour charity space supporting our call and demanding change.

With the community firmly behind us, we sent a message loud and clear to government now and in future, that we can no longer wait to deliver solutions to the challenges faced by people affected by brain tumours.

Our next steps will be to engage with the new government and develop a National Brain Tumour Strategy, with the support of the community, that improves outcomes and works for everyone affected, no matter where they are or the grade of their tumour.

We all stood strong in the rain! Congratulations to you and the team for putting the event together on such an impactful date, and for making us all feel valued. As a community, we were seen and we will be heard.

Mark, one of our Involvement Champions, who lost his partner Cecilia to a brain tumour

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

Collaborating for change in partnership with NICE

We’re proud of our involvement in the April 2024 landmark decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to make dabrafenib and trametinib available through NHS prescribing.

This will be the first new treatment in decades for children with certain types of glioma and marks a real step change for families who have often had to rely on compassionate prescribing, travel abroad or costly private funding to access new, effective treatments.

BUILDING OUR COMMUNITY

Growing our community

We were thrilled to grow our community by 80,000 new people this year, with 4,696 coming via our Better Safe Than Tumour campaign. We also achieved a total of 4,487 pieces of media coverage – helping us reach new audiences.

Boosting relationships with High Profile Supporters

AMY NUTTALL

Twenty years ago, we funded research which laid the early groundwork for the drugs’ targeting of the BRAF V600E mutation. We worked with NICE and invited our community to share their stories right into the room, and used data from our paediatric brain tumour surveys to highlight the community’s unmet needs during the NICE appraisal process.

A huge thank you to all the families and trustees who shared their experiences as part of this process, and whose compelling stories were crucial to this positive outcome.

Our new celebrity partner Amy Nuttall, who lost her mum to a glioblastoma, released a charity single with proceeds coming to us, supported our call for a National Brain Tumour Strategy and took part in The Twilight Walk.

“ I know that [my mum] would have absolutely wanted me to use my platform in any way that I can to do good and help raise awareness for this awful disease.”

Amy Nuttall

Engaging a wide range of stakeholders

We know that we can’t succeed on our own. That’s why we’ve been more purposeful in working with a wide range of stakeholders. As well as working closely with partners in the pharmaceutical industry to help them better understand the true unmet needs of the brain tumour community, we’ve worked with charity partners and clinicians to address specific challenges in whole genome sequencing and access to clinic trials.

We’ve also been able to work collaboratively with other charities and the Office of Life Sciences to offer guidance and feedback on the delivery of the Government’s Cancer Mission.

VICKI MICHELLE

Much-loved stage and screen actress Vicki Michelle also came on board, having lost her sister, Suzie, to a glioblastoma.

“ The advice and guidance [The Charity] gave was invaluable in helping us make the most of the time we were able to share together.”

Vicki Michelle

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

DRIVING AWARENESS OF SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF BRAIN TUMOURS

Helping the public spot the signs and symptoms

Listening to our community, we know there’s a real lack of awareness out there. This has to change if people are going to feel more confident approaching their GP. This year, we grew our Better Safe Than Tumour campaign, with 49% of people able to name one brain tumour symptom by the end of 2023/24 – an increase of 21 percentage points on before the campaign!

27M

people reached with our signs and symptoms campaign through TV, radio, podcasts and more.

In total, over 100,000 people have checked their symptoms using our checker, and we’ve reached more than 27m people through TV, radio, podcasts and more.

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RAISING FUNDS TO GO FURTHER FASTER

We rely on voluntary income to be able to do all our work, and in an increasingly challenging external environment, we continue to be amazed and humbled by the extraordinary ways in which our supporters raise money, raise awareness and donate to ensure we can continue with our mission. To each and every person, thank you . Without you, our work wouldn’t be possible.

Increasing our income

We’re delighted that we’ve been able to increase our income to match our rapidly growing ambitions as an organisation. In total, our amazing community helped us raise a whopping £14,195,000 in 2023/24. That’s an incredible 11.6% increase on the previous year and achieved our budgeted target of £14.2m.

£14M+ raised in 2023/24.

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A bold new event

We began the financial year with one of the boldest events in The Charity's history - our Time art exhibition. For 10 days we took over the Business Design Centre in London to exhibit over 200 pieces of art made or donated by people from the brain tumour community. We had almost 1,000 visitors and used the gift of the space donated to us for our Celebrating You Awards 2023 and the launch of our Living Longer and Better strategy.

£454,000

raised at TCS London Marathon.

Another huge achievement was increasing Community Fundraising income from DIY activities – for example, challenges, walks, runs, cycles, dinners and birthdays. This income grew to £2,428,000.

Record fundraising attempts

The Twilight Walk returned once again in Brain Tumour Awareness Month in March, with a record 1,200 people coming together in London and 1,300 people walking it their own way up and down the country. In total, a whopping £495,000 was raised!

£495,000 raised during The Twilight Walk.

We also had our most successful TCS London Marathon ever. 132 people ran to accelerate cures, raising an astounding £454,000. And thanks to everyone who took part in an event, from running to cycling and trekking, they have raised £3.1m, including The Lewis Moody Foundation. Our wonderful corporate partners and major donors helped make our Summer and Winter Appeals huge successes by building generous pledge pots for our matchedfunding appeals - raising £150,000 and £230,000 respectively.

Spectacular Supporter Groups

Year on year, our invaluable Supporter Groups continue to have a huge impact by raising funds and awareness across the UK. Overall, our Supporter Group community raised an awe-inspiring £843,000 in 2023/24. We were also thrilled to welcome nine new Supporter Groups to The Charity.

Partnering with Wickes

2023/24 saw us kick off our partnership with DIY retailer Wickes. In May 2024, we celebrated the one-year anniversary of the partnership beginning and crossing the £1m fundraising mark!

On top of this incredible amount raised, the partnership is about much more than money. It's a great opportunity to raise awareness of The Charity, most notably through in-store radio adverts, which reach an estimated audience of three million people each month.

Leaving a lasting legacy

We're very grateful to have received almost £1m of legacies this year. We’re so thankful to everyone who chooses to support us in this way – these gifts will ensure that you have lasting impact.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

WRAP SUPPORT AROUND EVERYONE

Our aim for 2023/24 was to grow all our support services by 10%, while still achieving the high standard of more than 85% of people reporting that we helped them significantly.

We’re delighted to report that we managed to increase one-to-one support by 33%. In total, we helped 12,189 people in 2023/24, compared with 9,153 the previous year.

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SUPPORT AND INFORMATION LINE

RESOURCES

4,238 helped via resources including Information Packs, Brainy Bags and Young Adult Well-being Packs

3,129 people helped via Support and Information Line

82% positively responded to getting what they were looking for

79% positively responded to “has it helped”

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EVENTS
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219 76 people helped at the Young via events Adult Ball

3,916 Adult Information Packs

Launched new Paediatric Information Packs through the website and paediatric neuroscience centres

12,189 people helped in individual support*

128 at Family Days ONLINE

1.1M

BENEFITS CLINIC

active users of support in the main website and the Better Safe Than Tumour website

550 people helped via Benefits Clinic

32,212 memberships of our online brain tumour support groups

COUNSELLING SERVICE

£1.31M in new benefits accessed

425 2,785 people entered counselling Counselling Service sessions delivered

91% of those surveyed would recommend our groups to others

85% felt better connected to others who understand

81% of people reported the counselling has made a difference to their emotional well-being and ability to cope, with wellbeing scores (Core-10) improving by 34%

87% of people said they were likely or extremely likely to take action or do something different as a result of the counselling

100% of people rated their experience of counselling as very good or good

100% of people would recommend the service to others

• Number of unique people helped one on one by our different services

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

HELPING SET THE STANDARD FOR EXCELLENT CARE

In 2023/24 we continued to help neuroscience centres and healthcare professionals across the UK level up their care, while also giving power to the voices of everybody affected by a brain tumour.

Partnering with the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission

Our Improving Brain Tumour Care (IBTC) surveys play an integral role as the patient voice in the accreditation process for Tessa Jowell Centres of Excellence (TJCoE) - a programme run by the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission (TJBCM).

TJCoE accreditation recognises centres that provide excellent treatment, care and research opportunities for patients with brain tumours. The accreditation process includes an extensive application form, patient feedback - collected through our IBTC surveys - and a virtual site visit from the TJCoE team.

Since the launch of the programme in 2020, each of the neuroscience centres in the UK have been invited to apply to become a TJCoE. So far, 17 adult centres have been awarded TJCoE accreditation and other centres that’ve applied have been provided feedback on how to improve so they can hopefully achieve accreditation in the future.

In 2023/24, we used 1,544 responses to our IBTC surveys to produce reports about 17 neuroscience centres.

These reports help highlight areas of best practice and identify where improvements can be made. They play a valuable role in spreading best practice across the entire network of neuroscience centres in the UK.

In June 2023, we launched our Paediatric Improving Brain Tumour Care (PIBTC) surveys that were designed to capture the treatment and care experiences of children diagnosed with a brain tumour and their carers.

This coincided with the opening of a new programme by TJBCM that recognises paediatric neuro-oncology centres that provide excellent treatment, care and research activities for patients with brain tumours and their families – the Tessa Jowell Centres of Excellence for Children (TJCoEfC).

All 17 paediatric neuro-oncology centres in the UK were invited to apply. 15 of the centres applied and we used 251 responses to our PIBTC surveys to create reports on 11 of those centres to support their application.

In every centre, TJBCM found remarkable examples of NHS staff working well beyond what was asked for to deliver excellent care for their patients. Six centres were given TJCoEfC accreditation, with the wider network of 15 centres working together and with TJBCM to spread best practice so that all 15 centres can achieve TJCoEfC accreditation.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

Championing the community voice in everything we do

We understand that the lived experience of people affected by brain tumours adds huge amounts of value to our work. That’s why we champion the community voice in everything we do through our Involvement Network. In September 2023, we recruited 21 new Involvement Champions to replace the existing cohort.

121 involvement projects.

In 2023/24, there were 121 involvement projects that spanned various teams across The Charity including marketing, policy, support, data, events, fundraising and research.

72 (60%) of the involvement projects were helping research teams - not just those funded by us - and making sure the community voice is present in discussions focused on how we accelerate new cures for brain tumours.

As part of Brain Tumour Awareness Month, four Involvement Champions attended parliamentary drop ins and six Champions also took part in the activation event in London for the launch of our National Brain Tumour Strategy campaign. The Involvement Network was also heavily involved in campaign development.

In 2023/24, we also recruited our fifth cohort of Young Ambassadors. Our Young Ambassadors help accelerate a cure in a wide range of ways – from supporting our events and championing our work, to sharing their stories and campaigning for change.

They play an important role in our work by helping us support other teenagers and young adults affected by a brain tumour diagnosis. Their ideas and input have been vital in shaping our Young Adult Service and in developing our resources.

Image right: Young Ambassador group

I didn’t know anyone else who had been through this at my age – but the support from the Young Adults Service has been incredible. From the online meet ups, to messages in the groups, nothing has ever been too much of an ask for the staff and they always go above and beyond.

When I joined my first online meet up, I was feeling quite low, to be honest with you. I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

A brain tumour diagnosis is scary and isolating. But talking to the other young people makes you realise you’re not alone! At a scary time in your life, it’s humbling to know there’s others there who are experiencing the same thing.

Mel Kelly (Young Ambassador)

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

Since doing counselling my ability to cope has dramatically improved. My counsellor has given me so many helpful tools to use now and in the future.

Counselling service client

FILL THE GAPS

Where possible, we fill the gaps in diagnosis, treatment and care that the brain tumour community have told us need to be filled. We work in partnership with a wide range of healthcare professionals and other organisations to do this.

Growing our free counselling service

In 2023/24, we focused on increasing the scope of our free counselling service so that more people were able to access counselling.

We now have 11 paid counsellors, 10 qualified volunteers and 7 student volunteers providing counselling, with 9 volunteers helping assess people who apply for the service.

This helped us deliver 151% more sessions in 2023/24 than in the previous year.

Training professionals to help diagnose brain tumours

In 2023/24, our Optical Engagement Manager directly trained 4,737 optical professionals to recognise the optical signs of a brain tumour – a 13% increase year on year.

In a new collaboration with the Association of Optometrists, we’re now delivering a short series of presentations on diagnosing brain tumours with 584 people attending the first of these on papilloedema.

This will allow us to reach more people at a lower cost.

4,737

trained to recognise optical signs of a brain tumour.

151% more counselling sessions than last year.

We’re also progressing the scoping work on faster diagnosis with professionals, starting with GPs and the GP pathway, recruiting GPs to a working group to help shape this work.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

We take seriously our responsibility to meet the diverse needs of the brain tumour community and our wider stakeholders – both internally and externally. That’s why we’ve continued to undertake significant work to further our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) agenda – though we know there is much more to be done.

ACCELERATING CURES FOR ALL BRAIN TUMOURS

By building a diverse research community that brings together the widest possible range of talents, backgrounds, perspectives and experiences, we know that we can increase the innovation and creativity of the research we fund.

A number of external factors – for example, access to education and university places – can affect diversity in research. The Charity is contributing towards the creation of a truly diverse research environment in the following areas.

• Our Future Leaders programme – aimed at preventing brilliant early-career researchers from leaving the field of research into brain tumours due to difficulty securing funding - has gone from strength-to-strength. As well as opening applications for our next round of Future Leaders, we announced our first-ever Future Leader Junior Fellows – which is the second stage of the programme.

• Two of our Trustees – Matimba Swann and Rachel Edgar – gave presentations to The Charity about the importance of International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

• Wherever possible we try to maintain diversity on our Scientific Advisory Board and at each meeting we actively guard against unconscious bias.

DRIVING THE BEST LIFELONG CARE

We’re dedicated to identifying and eliminating inequalities and unmet needs in healthcare treatment and support.

This year we’ve:

• Expanded our Policy and Campaigns work across the devolved nations of the UK, so that we’re always advocating for what’s best for the brain tumour community no matter where they live in the UK. This has included drop-in events at Westminster, Holyrood and the Senedd, as well as meetings with the Minister of State for Health and Secondary Care, the Minister for Public Health in Scotland and the Minister for Health in Wales as part of the Wales Cancer Alliance,

• Run round four of the Adult Improving Brain Tumour Care surveys that aims to identify gaps in care and unmet needs – as well as launching our Paediatric Improving Brain Tumour Care surveys.

• Increased the availability of our free counselling service, which aims to reduce inequalities in who can access emotional support after a brain tumour diagnosis.

• Co-sponsored the Scottish Brain Tumour Early Detection Roundtable that brought together charity partners, politicians and industry experts with the aim of understanding the current barriers to a brain tumour diagnosis in Scotland and to identify how the diagnosis pathway can be improved.

RAISING OUR GLOBAL VOICES

EDI is a core component of everything we do in Fundraising, Marketing and Community Experience, ensuring that our events, fundraising, website and all outward facing channels and teams are accessible and inclusive.

This year we’ve:

• Continued to grow community involvement in our work, including growing our Involvement Network, welcoming our newest cohort of Young Ambassadors and appointing new Involvement Champions.

• We work to ensure that our brand and campaigns are diverse and inclusive.

• We have audited and started to fill gaps in our story, image and video libraries.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

• We work with our community to ensure community fundraising and events are accessible.

• Accessibility remains at the heart of our website – and recent developments have improved it further.

• We continue to monitor, track and evolve our vulnerable person, complaints and fundraising guidance policies, to ensure we’re giving the very best experience to all in our community.

EDI AND OUR TEAM

We believe it’s important that our team is representative of the community we serve, so we strive to be as diverse and inclusive as possible. We also want everyone who works with us to feel that they belong, have a voice in the things that matter most to them and, ultimately, have a positive experience of their time with The Charity – whether they’re in a paid role or volunteer with us.

Among other projects and initiatives, we’ve:

• been certified as a Disability Confident Committed Employer as part of the government’s Disability Confident Scheme. By being part of this scheme, The Charity highlight how passionate we are about creating an inclusive environment for all, and how committed we are to increasing people's understanding of disabilities and challenging attitudes that people may have about disabilities.

• created a new sensory room at our Head Office in Fleet for people who are neurodivergent

• strengthened our EDI Champion group and EDI Trustee Committee

• celebrated multiple cultural and religious events

• continued to create an accessible and inclusive working environment

• improved our recruiting processes with a particular focus on improving diversity and inclusion, including:

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE (ESG) SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE

A social ethos is intrinsic in The Charity since its purpose of existence is to serve the brain tumour community and drive change, and our values reflect this. We have comprehensive policies on matters such as anti-modern slavery and, through our Governance and Ethics committee, keep under constant review our partnerships to ensure the highest ethical standards in all our relationships.

REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Every team in The Charity considers what changes, big or small, they can make to reduce the environmental impact of what we do. Our Sustainability Champions group also meets regularly to review the actions being taken, make suggestions for improvements and keep environmental considerations at the forefront of people’s work and personal life.

This year, we introduced a Cycle to Work scheme for staff. We also continue to implement sustainable practices and strive to protect the environment by, for example:

• not using balloons

• avoiding lamination, coating and binding, as these reduce recyclability

• making a conscious effort to use local suppliers, and printers who are ISO 14001 certified and who report on their environmental impacts

• encouraging Twilight Walk participants to reuse t-shirts from previous years

• • recycling and refurbishing old fundraising stock

• discontinuing plastic bag use.

We are a member of ECO Hub, a 700-charity-strong social media forum dedicated to reducing the environmental impact of charities across the globe. We share ideas and information and engage in constructive discussion to find alternative solutions, to make a positive impact.

• blinding applications

• structure interviews

• diverse interview panels

• constructive feedback to unsuccessful applicants

• improved collection of diversity data

• advertising job openings on websites that target a wide spectrum of individuals.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

FINANCE REVIEW

Income grew 11.6% in the year to March 2024 to a record £14.2m for The Charity, meeting our budgeted expectation. The income is vital to funding the essential work The Charity does improving the life and outcomes of those affected by brain tumours.

Expenditure on charitable activities increased by 38% year-on-year, driven by expenditure on awards into world-class scientific research. In the year to March 2024 research related expenditure was £7m, just short of our target of 50% of income.

INCOME

Our funding comes through a diverse portfolio of income streams, with no reliance on any one stream. This provides greater security in funding multi-year research commitments. In the year, income was up year-on-year in most areas.

We saw year-on-year growth of between 15% and 22%, beating our expectations, in our wider-community participation income, including Events, Community Fundraising, Supporter Groups and Donations. These areas represent roughly half our income and the growth reflects the generosity of the community and the growth of our donor base.

Our Corporate and Trusts income also increased from £1.9m in 2022/23 to £2.6m in 2023/24, due to our Charity partnership with Wickes which brought in over £1m.

Investment income grew by 47%, driven in part by Central banks increasing interest rates.

The Charity received funding from the Medical Research Council which stems from the UK Government Covid Medical Research Charity Support Fund, setup to assist charities funding medical research impacted by the Covid pandemic. In the year to March 2024 we received £83k, a fall from the £540k received in 2022-23.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

EXPENDITURE

Expenditure in the year increased by £3.4m to £14.7m at the Group level.

The Charity’s primary objective is to fund quality research and we aim to spend half of our income in this area as it is vital to us achieving our ambitious objectives. Expenditure on Research, which comprises of both the current year’s instalments of grant awards to institutions performing the research and The Charity’s costs of running and managing this process, increased by £2.2m year-on-year to £7.0m which is 49% of income.

Patient Support and Campaigning and Awareness expenditure both increased by 27% year-on-year. These areas form the other main strands of The Charity’s primary objectives, to support those affected by brain tumours, to campaign for improved healthcare, research and treatments and to raise awareness of the disease.

The Charity, excluding subsidiaries formed to commercialise BRIAN app technology, met its goal in the year to March 2024 to spend 80p in every pound spent on its charitable objectives.

INVESTMENTS AND CASH

World stock markets made a strong recovery in the year and income from interest bearing investments increased as interest rates went up in the UK. At the end of the financial year The Charity’s investments were valued at £14.6m, with realised and unrealised gains of £0.8m.

In 2022-23 The Charity formed trading subsidiaries to commercialise the intellectual property developed in creating the BRIAN app and database. The intention was these subsidiaries, after a period of investment, would make profits that they would donate to The Charity. In the year to March 2024 The Charity loaned Medli Health Ltd £360k to fund the company to build a customer base and establish itself. This was in addition to loans made in the year to March 2023 totalling £0.9m. However Medli failed to grow income as planned and produced a financial deficit. In May 2024, the decision was taken to terminate the operational activities of the Medli business as it became apparent it was taking longer than anticipated to grow to a point of profit. The Charity is in negotiations for a sale of the Intellectual Property and has fully provided for the intercompany loans as potential bad debts. Charity Commission guidelines require charities to notify them of any potential loss of income or assets of more than £25,000 and accordingly appropriate filings have been and will be made. To date The Commission has made no further enquiries or taken any action in relation to this matter.

The Charity also has a trading subsidiary, TBTC Trading Limited. This subsidiary, which is wholly owned by The Charity, carried out non-charitable retail trading activities for the benefit of The Charity. During the year, TBTC Trading Ltd made a trading profit of £22k which will be donated to The Charity.

All investments are held in highly liquid assets. Current forecasts do not expect the investments to need to be liquidated in the next 12 months hence short-term volatility in values is not considered a significant risk. Cash held as at 31 March 2024 was £3.5m.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

RESERVES POLICY

The Charity’s Reserves Policy is intended to ensure the long-term sustainability of The Charity, its ability to fund committed research expenditure and maintain its core services and Charitable Objectives by ensuring an adequate level of reserves are maintained to manage through a crisis.

Each year the Trustees review forecasts of income, expenditure, cash flows and reserves, to ensure The Charity maintains the level of reserves sufficient to manage a reduction of income that cannot be offset by a reduction in expenditure. In deciding on the level of reserves, the Trustees consider the risk and impact of potential unforeseen events and the ability of The Charity to react to such events.

In addition to considering income and expenditure, the Trustees ensure The Charity maintains a high level of liquid assets to meet foreseen and unforeseen circumstances and to meet our research commitments.

At 31 March 2024, the targeted level of unrestricted reserves is £1m. This is calculated as being the higher of £1m or the sum of 25% loss of income from forecast for 2024-25 levels equating to £3.8m, being offset by 25% savings of non-committed operating expenditure calculated as £1.7m and delaying budgeted new research awards of £2.1m. The £1m minimum unrestricted reserve target is on the basis that the Trustees consider it appropriate to always maintain a minimal reserve to fund closure of The Charity in an extreme event. It is expected in future years the calculation will require The Charity maintain higher unrestricted reserves as more money is committed to Research.

The level of total Funds at 31 March 2024 was £8.5m, consisting of unrestricted general reserves of £6.2m, designated of £1.0m and restricted of £1.3m. Free reserves, defined as general reserves of £6.2m less functional fixed assets of £0.2m, were £6.0m.

At 31 March 2024, we had unaccrued but committed research expenditure totalling £13.0m which was subject to satisfying our ongoing monitoring requirements. The investments and cash at 31 March 2024 (which are all liquid) were £18.1m.

Our Supporter Groups typically express a preference over how the funds they raise should be spent. These preferences usually

include our research or support activities and The Charity has earmarked these funds for future specific projects in the next two financial years. Income raised by these Supporter Groups is designated by the Trustees for the activities identified by each group.

From time to time, The Charity may hold accumulated reserves, which are intended to be utilised to commission further research and to cover existing research commitments. Accumulated funds are invested in accordance with The Charity’s investment policy.

The Finance Committee meets at least three times a year to review income, expenditure and all other financial issues, including risk, and reports to the main Board of Trustees.

INVESTMENT POLICY

The investment of funds is controlled by the Trustees who have appointed The Charity's Finance Committee to implement the Trustees' investment decisions. Albert E Sharp and Evelyn have been appointed to manage the investment of any surplus liquidity we may have from time to time.

The mandate agreed with the investment managers is to hold a mixture of good quality cash proxies, government gilts and other fixed income securities, together with some equity exposure, with the objective of generating a balance between capital growth and income generation over the investment cycle. All investments are liquid. In reaching investment decisions, the Trustees consider the cash position of The Charity and our projected short and medium term cash needs. Investment manager performance is measured against established market benchmarks suitable for each investment class.

Overall, investment decisions are designed to produce the best financial return, within an acceptable level of risk, and also to maintain the value of funds in real terms, so far as practical. At the year end, The Charity had a £14.6m portfolio of UK equities, fixed interest securities, mixed funds, alternative investments and cash. The portfolio generated income of £563k and a valuation gain of £764k.

In addition to managed investment funds, the Trustees decided in 2022/23 to invest in commercialising the intellectual

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

property and technology it had developed in creating BRIAN, The Charity’s database tool. The Charity formed new subsidiaries for this commericial venture and evaluates any investments being made on its financial return against an equivalent asset class.

EMPLOYEES

The Charity operates an equal opportunities recruitment policy. The Remuneration Committee is responsible for overseeing The Charity’s pay and reward structures for all staff. The Remuneration Committee is also responsible for setting senior management salaries annually; having taken account of skills and experience, pay levels in similar organisations and the achievement of personal objectives and living The Charity’s values.

The long-term success and performance of The Charity is directly linked to the talents, motivation and accomplishments of our employees. We recognise the importance of developing our employees and focus on building organisational capability through first recruiting great people, then building high levels of relevant skills and knowledge through our High Performing Team programme. Staff motivation is fostered by providing an environment where work is stimulating and rewarding and a high level of collaboration across the organisation is encouraged.

The work we do wouldn’t be possible without the incredible contribution we receive from our volunteers. We currently have over one thousand active volunteers across the UK who support in different roles within the organisation. Voluntary activities include: supporting community fundraising activity, attending challenge events, campaigning, reviewing information resources for those diagnosed with a brain tumour, sitting on the panel who decide which research we fund and supporting different projects in our head office.

RISK FACTORS

The Trustees have considered the major risks to which The Charity is exposed. They have reviewed those risks and established systems and procedures to manage them such that they are part of the senior leadership’s regular management focus. The Finance Committee reviews governance and risk during each year and makes recommendations on best practice to the Trustees. The principal risks and uncertainties facing The Charity, and how

we endeavour to mitigate these, are:

• That we fail to secure adequate income. We have developed our detailed fundraising strategy, intended to widen the balance of our portfolio of fundraising activities. We have invested in our people and systems to increase our fundraising capability. We measure fundraising performance against budgets and forecasts. We maintain adequate reserves. We have no overreliance on any one income stream and generally 40% of our income for the year is known income at the start of the year. The investment in CRM systems helps optimise stewardship plans.

• That we are not able to commission enough high-quality research projects. We are developing our engagement with the brain tumour research community, and working to build capacity in the sector. We are also looking at alternative research models. In addition, we have extended funding globally and put significant emphasis on building relationships with key researchers.

• That we become affected by damage to our reputation, or by negative sentiment in the charity sector. Entering and winning charity sector awards is a strong mitigation factor in this area. We also manage reputation risk through staff training and effective talent and volunteer policies. We monitor social and traditional media to inform us of factors impacting The Charity and the wider sector. We continue to be transparent and trustworthy in providing effective communications with donors, stakeholders and other key groups.

• That our IT infrastructure is not adequate to support our activities. We continue to invest and develop improved IT platforms and provide suitable training for our staff. Our IT infrastructure is hosted and managed externally by an IT solutions company.

• That we are the victim of cyber-crime. We outsource our IT hosting to a third party who meet the ISO 27001 Standard for datacentres, and ensure that we have leading edge malware protection and cyber security. Online banking arrangements include double authorisation of all transactions and the use of random number generating security devices. All websites use SSL technology. In addition, we have cyber insurance policy.

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GOING CONCERN

The Trustees have reviewed The Charity’s annual budget and five-year projection, which are updated on an annual basis, as well as the principal financial risks.

The Charity has sufficient cash and investments to cover current liabilities and research grant commitments.

The Trustees consider that there is a reasonable expectation that The Charity has sufficient resources to continue operating for the foreseeable future. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going-concern basis of accounting in preparing the accounts.

OBJECTIVES FOR 2024-25

The Charity’s objectives remain aligned to its core values and our priority objectives for the year are:

• We will Accelerate Cures for all brain tumours

• We will drive the Best Lifelong Care across the UK, driving up the quality of treatment centres in the UK and empowering our community to share their experiences.

In addition:

• Identify the best global research to be funded through a new round of Research Grant funding

• Plan and adapt The Charity so that we can deliver the goals of our new organisational strategy, Living Longer and Better , which was co-created as a community.

• We will raise our Global Voices , sharing evidence and platforms so passion and experience is amplified to support those affected, to raise funds and drive progress.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Our vision remains unchanged: for everyone diagnosed with a brain tumour to live longer, better lives. We are investing time and effort on expanding our fundraising to grow and to provide income for years to come, money that will be used to fund our ambitious year-on-year investment in the best global research.

Our new strategy will guide us to 2030 and will set our direction and the shape we need to become in future years.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

THANKS

Last year, The Charity continued to fund our existing commitments to the highest quality research as well as raising awareness and supporting thousands of people affected by a brain tumour.

This work is only possible due to the unprecedented support from the community and the companies, charitable trusts and foundations, both in the UK and internationally, which continue to work with us.

To everyone involved, we cannot thank you enough for continuing to help us as we strive to defeat brain tumours!

In addition to the donors named below, we would like to thank all our anonymous donors.

TRUSTS

The AOK Trust The Colin Oliphant Charitable Trust The Syncona Foundation The Reed Foundation

FAMILY-LED CHARITY PARTNERS

Angel Child James Clifford Campling Trust The Brian Cross Memorial Trust The Emily Morris Fund The Oli Hilsdon Foundation Joss Searchlight The Be More Laura Foundation Tom's Trust Shay's Smiles The William Low Trust Larsen's Pride Iggy's Fund Naseem's Manx Brain Tumour Charity Jersey Brain Tumour Charity The Jake McCarthy Foundation

CORPORATES

Allports Group Atrato Capital Group Bluecube BPL Business Design Centre Cross Country Trains GlobalLogic Gowling WLG Hanne & Co Solicitors JM Finn K&L Gates Knight Protection Microsoft NEX Group PLC Quirk Solutions Salesforce Underbelly Team Lewis Wickes

CO-FUNDING PARTNERS

Brain Tumour Research Children with Cancer UK CRUK GOSHCC

PATRON

Earl Spencer

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

HIGH PROFILE SUPPORTERS AND FRIENDS OF THE CHARITY

Alastair Stewart OBE Amy Nuttall Anthony Forder and Laura Archie Goodburn Charly Clive Dawn French Dominic Matteo Ella and Matt Mills (Deliciously Ella) Hal Cruttenden Holly Matthews Ian Chillcott James Jordan Jason Durr John Maynard Jonny Wilkinson CBE Kelsey Parker Lewis Moody OBE and Annie Moody Marc Silk Matt Allwright Mel Giedroyc Miles Jupp Nick Baines (Peanut – Kaiser Chiefs) Nicki Chapman Olivia Colman CBE Owain Arthur Phil Spencer Philippa Forrester Russell Watson Sandy Lyle MBE Sherrie Hewson Sian Reese-Williams Sophie Kinsella Steve Backshall Tchéky Karyo The Neales The Wanted Tim Burgess and The Charlatans Tom Daley Vicki Michelle

RESEARCHERS IN OUR NETWORK

As well as members of our Scientific Advisory Board (mentioned on page 33), these are just some of the researchers providing an ongoing contribution to our success.

Adel Samson Alasdair Rooney Anthony Byrne Anthony Chalmers Antoni Michalski Chris Jones

Christopher Mount Colin Kennedy Colin Watts Darren Hargrave David Jones Diane Puccetti Duane Mitchell Esther Becker Gelareh Zadeh Helen Hartley Ingela Oberg Jessica Taylor Juan Pedro Martinez-Barbera Jun Ishihara Kirsty Maddock Linda Dirvan Linda Sharp Louis Chesler Lucy Stead Manish Aghi Mara De Matino Marcel Kool Marion Smits Martin Taphoorn Melanie Calvert Michael Brown Michael Hawkins Michael Jenkinson Monika Hegi Neil Carragher Ola Rominiyi Pamela Kearns Paul Brennan Paul Northcott Petra Hamerlik Philipp Euskirchen Pim French Rameen Beroukhim Richard Gilbertson Rohitashwa Sinha Sara Melhuish Sebastian Brandner Simon Bailey Simona Parrinello Sophie Thomas Spencer Watson Steve Clifford Steve Pollard Stuart Smith Susan Short Thomas Wurdinger Todd Hankinson Tyler Miller Veronica Rendo Vincenzo D'Angiolella

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

BIOMEDICAL SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

NAME

Dr Adrienne Boire Dr Benjamin Deneen Dr Catherine Flores Professor Colin Watts Professor Cynthia Hawkins Dr Gerry Thompson Dr Lucy Stead Dr Marcel Kool Dr Mariella Filbin Dr Mark Gilbert Dr Omer Bayraktar Dr Phedias Diamandis Professor Simona Parrinello Dr Spencer Watson Dr Stephen Mack Professor Steve Clifford Dr Susan Chang Dr Tyler Miller

INSTITUTION

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA Baylor College of Medicine, USA University of Florida, USA University of Birmingham, UK The Hospital for Sick Children, Canada University of Edinburgh, UK University of Leeds, UK German Cancer Research Centre, Germany Harvard Medical School, USA National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK University of Toronto, Canada University College London (UCL), UK University of Lausanne, Switzerland St Jude Children's Research Hospital, USA The Institute of Child Health, Newcastle University, UK University of California San Francisco, USA Massachusetts General Hospital, USA

PAEDIATRIC CLINICAL TRIAL SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

NAME

Professor Arzu Onar-Thomas Professor Jordan Hansford Dr Jurgen Lemiere Professor Martin van den Bent Dr Matthias Karajannis Professor Michael Weller

INSTITUTION

St Jude Children's Research Hospital, USA University of Adelaide, Australia KU Leuven, Belgium Erasmus MC Cancer Center, Netherlands Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland

LAY ADVISORS

Ms Christina Brincat Mr Donald Innes Mr John Graham Ms Louise Webber-Edwards Mr Neil Munn Mrs Rachel Rathbone

33

TRUSTEES AND GOVERNANCE

TRUSTEES

Dr Alan Palmer Anna Jarvis Beth Worrall (resigned 02/05/23, reappointed 28/07/23 and resigned 13/06/24) Caroline Steel Dr Elena Bechberger Hayley Conroy Jack Morris CBE Jessica Sass (resigned 21/09/23) Justine McIIroy Dr Kieran Palmer Matimba Swana Neil Dickson OBE Dr Rachel Edgar Dr Russell Hagan Sean Hird Simon Hay (resigned 21/09/23) Sukhdip Sandhu

The directors and trustees had liability insurance during the financial year.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Dr Michele Afif (appointed 17/07/2023)

PRINCIPAL AND REGISTERED OFFICE

Fleet 27, Rye Close, Fleet, Hampshire, GU51 2UH

AUDITORS

Menzies LLP, Magna House, 18-32 London Road, Staines-upon-Thames, TW18 4BP

BANKERS

Lloyds Bank Plc, 147 High Street, Guildford, GU1 3AG

INVESTMENT MANAGERS

Albert E. Sharpe, 7 Elm Court Arden Street, Stratford-upon-Avon Evelyn Partners, 25 Moorgate, London

THE CHARITY'S OBJECTS

The objects of the Charity are for the public benefit:

• 1) to relieve sickness and to promote and protect good health by supporting research into the nature, causes, diagnosis and treatment and social consequences of tumours of the brain and central nervous system and to publish the useful results of such research;

COMPANY SECRETARY

Liam Heffernan

CHARITY REGISTRATION NUMBERS

England and Wales 1150054 Scotland SC045081

• 2) the relief of suffering of people with tumours of the brain and central nervous system and their families and carers, through the provision of information and support to them; and

• 3) to advance the education of the public in all areas relating to tumours of the brain and central nervous system.

COMPANY NUMBER

08266522

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

The Brain Tumour Charity is a registered charity, number 1150054, which was incorporated on 24 October 2012 and is governed by its memorandum of association.

When a vacancy occurs on the Board of Trustees, the Board will take the opportunity to review the skills matrix of Trustees, to identify specific skill sets that would strengthen the Board’s overall effectiveness. In addition, consideration is given to whether there is a need for any specific community or stakeholder group that needs to be represented by a new Trustee. The Board operates an equal opportunities recruitment policy and Trustees that are recruited are required to have demonstrable experience in the areas identified by the skills review. Induction information covering the role and responsibilities of Trustees are provided to the Trustees and governance updates are provided as and when appropriate. The Trustees who served during the year are listed above.

The Trustees meet as a full Board four times per year and agree the broad strategy and areas of activity for The Charity including research strategy, approval of research grants, information and support strategy, financial planning, fundraising, investment, reserves and risk management policies and performance.

The Charity benefits from committees which have been established to advise on key areas of activity, which are:

• Finance

• Research

• Information and Support

• Governance and Ethics

• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

• Remuneration

The Charity has formed two Scientific Advisory Boards (SABs) to ensure that we only fund the highest quality research. Further details of the Biomedical Scientific Advisory Board (Biomed SAB) and the (Cannabionoid Clinical Trail SAB) can be found on page 33.

EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

The Charity is committed to enhancing equality, diversity and inclusion, both within all areas of the organisation and in The Charity’s work and objectives, ensuring we represent and help the whole community we serve.

The EDI committee comprising of at least two members of the Executive team and two Trustees along with other members as required has the purpose of making The Charity more proactive in reducing disparities, enhancing consistency of effort, raising awareness as well as evidencing and reporting on progress. This is aided by a Champions Team made up from Charity staff who meet regularly to consider and drive forward on all areas of EDI within The Charity.

All Trustees give of their time freely and no Trustee remuneration was paid in the year. Details of Trustee expenses are disclosed in Note 7 to the accounts. Trustees are required to disclose all relevant interests and register them with the Chief Executive and, in accordance with The Charity’s policy, withdraw from decisions where a conflict of interest arises.

Day-to-day operations and management are delegated to the Chief Executive and Senior Leadership Team who provide regular reports to the Trustees on performance and operations.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

GRANT-MAKING POLICY

The Charity has established its grantmaking policy to achieve its objectives for the public benefit to improve the lives of people diagnosed with a brain tumour, to advance scientific research into the disease and to seek a permanent cure or cures in the future.

The Brain Tumour Charity funding opportunities are based on the key aims of our research strategy ‘Accelerating a Cure’ launched in 2021-22. We fund research into a wide variety of brain tumour types that affect both adults and children. We issue open calls for applications for project grants, programme grants and clinical trials.

More than 12,000 people are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour each year and more than 5,000 lose their lives. Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40.

The beneficiaries of our grant-making programme are ultimately people with brain tumours and their families and carers. We know that only research can make a difference in helping us understand how the disease develops, what causes it and how we might develop new treatments to improve outcomes for people with brain tumours.

The Charity invites applications for research grants from institutions by advertising in specialist publications and through the brain tumour and wider cancer networks. As a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities, we seek to follow best practice in retaining the independence of research funding and ensuring that successful applicants and research institutions abide by best practice in research ethics.

Research grants are funded on an annual basis to undertake an agreed programme of research. Continuation of the grants is subject to annual assessment by our Research Team, supported by our Scientific Advisory Board. In all cases, continuation of funding is subject to the research undertaken continuing to be in the interests of our beneficiaries and a progress assessment that is satisfactory.

APPROACH TO FUNDRAISING

The Charity is a member of the Fundraising Regulator, who holds the Code of Fundraising Practice for the UK.

Our approach is to ensure that we comply with the standards as set out in the Code across all of our fundraising activity. We used the services of a professional third party fundraiser, Ethicall, during the year in a limited capacity to contact potential new donors. We comply with the key principles and behaviours of the Code to ensure that any vulnerable persons are treated fairly. All staff go through mandatory training when they join The Charity. We monitored the work of Ethicall with regular calls and reviewing reports on issues and complaints to ensure standards were adhered to.

We received no complaints this year relating to fundraising.

There have been no breaches of the code of practice during the year.

WORKING WITH PARTNERS

We are committed to working with all partners including those in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry in order to meet our objectives. We remain vigilant that our independence is not compromised and we act in the best interests of our community at all times.

PUBLIC BENEFIT

The Trustees confirm that they have referred to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit when reviewing the Charity’s aims and objectives and in planning future activities.

EXCEPTIONAL REAPPOINTMENT OF TRUSTEE

In September 2023 the Board extended the appointment of Neil Dickson OBE, a founder trustee, by one year to September 2024. This was to provide continuity and assistance to the Research Committee during a period of change following the resignation of the Chief Scientific Officer.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

STATEMENT OF THE TRUSTEES’ RESPONSIBILITIES

The Trustees (who are also directors of The Brain Tumour Charity for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees' report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice) including FRS 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of The Charity and the Group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure of the Group for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:

• Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently

• Observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain The Charity’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of The Charity and the Group and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of The Charity and the Group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. In so far as we are aware:

• There is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company's auditor is unaware.

• The Trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditor is aware of that information.

The Trustees Report (including the Strategic Report) was approved and authorised for issue by the Trustees on 27 September 2024 and signed on their behalf by:

• Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.

• State whether applicable UK Accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements.

Jack Morris CBE Chair of Trustees

• Prepare the financial statements on the going-concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that The Charity will continue in business.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF THE BRAIN TUMOUR CHARITY

OPINION

BASIS FOR OPINION

We have audited the financial statements of The Brain Tumour Charity (the 'parent charitable company') and its subsidiaries (the 'group') for the year ended 31 March 2024 which comprise the Consolidated statement of financial activities, the Consolidated balance sheet, the Company balance sheet, the Consolidated statement of cash flows and the related notes, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditors' responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the Group in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the United Kingdom, including the Financial Reporting Council's Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

In our opinion the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the Group's and of the parent charitable company's affairs as at 31 March 2024 and of the Group's incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

CONCLUSIONS RELATING TO GOING CONCERN

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the Trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the Group's or the parent charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

OTHER INFORMATION

The other information comprises the information included in the Annual report other than the financial statements and our Auditors' report thereon. The Trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the Annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

OPINION ON OTHER MATTERS PRESCRIBED BY THE COMPANIES ACT 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

• the information given in the Trustees' Report and Strategic Report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared are consistent with the financial statements.

• the Trustees' Report and Strategic Report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

MATTERS ON WHICH WE ARE REQUIRED TO REPORT BY EXCEPTION

In the light of our knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Trustees' Report or Strategic Report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• the parent charitable company has not kept adequate and sufficient accounting records, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

• the parent charitable company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

• certain disclosures of Trustees' remuneration specified by law are not made; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit: or

RESPONSIBILITIES OF TRUSTEES

As explained more fully in the Trustees' responsibilities statement, the Trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the Trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the Trustees are responsible for assessing the Group's and the parent charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Trustees either intend to liquidate the Group or the parent charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

AUDITORS' RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE AUDIT OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an Auditors' report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are

instances of noncompliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud.

The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

• The charitable company is subject to laws and regulations that directly affect the financial statements including financial reporting legislation. We determined that the following laws and regulations were most significant including the Companies Act 2006, Charities Act 2011, Employment and Health and Safety legislation, GDPR and the UK Code of Fundraising Practice. We assessed the extent of compliance with these laws and regulations as part of our procedures on the related financial statement items.

• We understood how the charitable company is complying with those legal and regulatory frameworks by, making inquiries to management, those responsible for legal and compliance procedures and the company secretary. We corroborated our inquiries through our review of board minutes.

• The engagement partner assessed whether the engagement team collectively had the appropriate competence and capabilities to identify or recognise noncompliance with laws and regulations. The assessment did not identify any issues in this area.

• We assessed the susceptibility of the charitable company’s financial statements to material misstatement, including how fraud might occur. We considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the organisation for fraud and identified the greatest potential for fraud in the following areas:

• Posting of fraudulent journal entries

• Posting of fraudulent payments and receipts in the accounting software

• Authorisation, processing, and payment of fraudulent expenses

• Fictitious employees

• Timing of revenue recognition

• Audit procedures performed by the engagement team included:

• Identifying and assessing the design effectiveness of controls management has in place to prevent and detect fraud;

• Understanding how those charged with governance considered and addressed the potential for override of controls or other inappropriate influence over the financial reporting process;

• Challenging assumptions and judgments made by management in its significant accounting estimates; and

• Identifying and testing journal entries, in particular any journal entries posted with unusual account combinations

• Carrying out checks to establish the validity of employees, and

• Reviewing and verifying the basis on which income is recognised in the accounts.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website at: www.frc.org.uk/ auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our Auditors' report.

USE OF OUR REPORT

This report is made solely to the charitable company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an Auditors' report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and its members, as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Janice Matthews

FCA (Senior statutory auditor) for and on behalf of Menzies LLP Chartered Accountants Statutory Auditor Magna House, 18-32 London Road, Staines-upon-Thames, TW18 4BP

Date: 27/09/2024

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

		Unrestricted	Restricted	Total	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total
		Funds	Funds	2024	Funds	Funds	2023
	Notes	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Income and
expenditure
Income from:
Donations and legacies	3	10,926	1,704	12,630	9,456	2,513	11,969
Other trading	3	925	77	1,002	284	79	363
Investments		563	-	563	383	-	383
Total income		12,414	1,781	14,195	10,123	2,592	12,715
Expenditure on:
Raising funds		3,130	33	3,163	2,892	31	2,923
Charitable activities
Research		4,766	2,241	7,007	2,293	2,482	4,775
Patient support		2,389	569	2,958	1,879	448	2,327
Campaigning &		1,369	162	1,531	876	334	1,210
raising awareness
Total expenditure on		8,524	2,972	11,496	5,048	3,264	8,312
charitable activities
Total expenditure	4	11,654	3,005	14,659	7,940	3,295	11,235
Net (expenditure)/income		760	(1,224)	(464)	2,183	(703)	1,480
before gains and losses
on investment assets
Realised and unrealised		764	-	764	(859)	-	(859)
gains/(loses) on investment
assets
Net movement in funds		1,524	(1,224)	300	1,324	(703)	621
for the year
Reconciliation of funds
Balances at 1 April		5,678	2,553	8,231	4,354	3,256	7,610
Balances at 31 March		7,202	1,329	8,531	5,678	2,553	8,231

The Statement of Financial Activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All incoming resources and resources expended derive from continuing activities. The notes on pages 45-59 form part of these financial statements

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 MARCH 2024

Company number: 08266522

		Consolidated	Consolidated		Company
		2024	2023	2024	2023
	Notes	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Fixed assets
Intangible assets	10	1	7	1	7
Tangible assets	11	221	244	221	244
Investment in subsidiaries	12	-	-	-	-
Investments	12	14,636	13,838	14,636	13,838
Current assets
Stock		50	34	-	-
Debtors	13	1,478	1,693	1,498	1,572
Cash at bank		3,487	4,566	3,401	4,551
		5,015	6,293	4,899	6,123
Creditors
Amounts falling due within one year	14	(11,242)	(12,051)	(11,222)	(12,023)
Net current (liabilities)/ assets		(6,227)	(5,758)	(6,323)	(5,900)
Provision for liabilities	15	(100)	(100)	(100)	(100)
Net assets		8,531	8,231	8,435	8,089

Funds
General reserve		6,194	3,985	6,098	3,843
Designated funds		1,008	1,693	1,008	1,693
Unrestricted funds		7,202	5,678	7,106	5,536
Restricted funds		1,329	2,553	1,329	2,553
	19	8,531	8,231	8,435	8,089

The financial statements were approved by the trustees on 27 September 2024 and signed on their behalf by:

~~joe~~ Jack Morris CBE ~~Hayley~~ Hayley Conroy ~~Covsrey~~ Chair of Trustees Chair of Finance Committee

The notes on pages 45-59 form part of these financial statements.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024

			2024	2023
			£'000	£'000
Net (expenditure) / income for the year
(as per the statement of fnancial activities)
Net income for the year			300	621
Adjustments for:
Depreciation			29	31
Losses/ (gains) on investments			(764)	859
Income from investments			(563)	(383)
(Increase)/ decrease in stocks			(17)	(27)
Decrease/ (increase) in debtors			215	(873)
Increase / (decrease) in creditors			(809)	(1,123)
Net cash (used in)/ provided by operating activities			(1,609)	(895)
Statement of cash fows
Cash fows from operating activities
Net cash (used in)/ provided by operating activities			(1,609)	(895)
Cash fows from investing activities:
Dividends, interest and rents from investments			563	383
Purchase of computer software			-	-
Purchase of property plant & equipment			-	-
Sale/(purchase) of investments			(33)	(162)
Net cash provided by/ (used in) investing activities			530	221
Change in cash and cash equivalents in	the year		(1,079)	(674)
Balances at 1 April			4,566	5,240
Balances at 31 March			3,487	4,566
Analysis of cash and cash equivalents
Cash in hand			1,161	2,544
Notice deposits (less than 3 months)			2,326	2,022
Total cash and cash equivalents			3,487	4,566
Analysis of changes in net debt		Cash from
	At 1 April	purchase of	Other Cash	At 31 March
	2023	investments	fows	2024
Cash	2,544	(33)	(1,350)	1,161
Cash equivalents	2,022	-	304	2,326
Net debt	4,566	(33)	(1,046)	3,487

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

1. STATEMENT OF COMPLIANCE

These financial statements have been prepared in compliance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019) – (Charities SORP (FRS 102)), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

The Brain Tumour Charity is a private company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under the Companies Act. The address of the registered office and company number are given on page 34. The principal activity of the company and the nature of its operations are set out in the trustees report starting on page 5.

2. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

(a) basis of preparation of fnancial statements

The financial statements have been prepared on the historical cost basis, as modified by the revaluation of investments at market value through the statement of financial activities. The Brain Tumour Charity (“The Charity”) constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the entity. The results and balance sheet of The Charity’s subsidiary undertakings, TBTC Trading Ltd, Acquist Data Holdings Ltd, Acquist Data Ltd, Medli Health Holding Ltd and Medli Health Ltd have been consolidated on a line by line basis. All Group companies prepare their accounts to 31 March.

In accordance with s408 of the Companies Act 2006, The Charity has not presented its unconsolidated statement of financial activities. The net incoming resources for The Charity in the year were £346,000 (2023: £520,000).

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention.

Judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty

The preparation of the financial statements requires management to make judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported. These estimates and judgements are continually reviewed and are based on experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances.

Significant judgements

The judgements (apart from those involving estimations) that management has made in the process of applying the entity's accounting policies and that have the most significant effect on the amounts recognised in the financial statements are as follows:

Income recognition

In the recognition of income in accordance with the accounting policy the management consider the detailed criteria for the income recognition from its activities and, in particular, whether The Charity had entitlement to the funds.

Key sources of estimation uncertainty

Accounting estimates and assumptions are made concerning the future and, by their nature, will rarely equal the related actual outcome. The key assumptions and other sources of estimation uncertainty that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year are as follows:

Full payment of our research grants is contingent upon the successful outcome of periodic reviews. Research expense is recognised in advance of each phase of individual projects and the outcome and final cost of projects can vary, depending on a number of uncertain factors.

Some of our legacy income is dependent on the outcome of future events, for example the sale of property. Where the value of a legacy can be estimated reliably at the balance sheet date, the value is recognised as income in the year. In addition we occasionally benefit from donated services, which we would otherwise have to purchase, these donations are valued and included as income and cost at the estimated price we would pay in the open market.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

(b) Company status

The company was incorporated on 24 October 2012 as a company limited by guarantee. The members of the company are the trustees named on page 34. In the event of the company being wound up, the liability in respect of the guarantee is limited to £10 per member of the company.

(c) Income

All income is included in the Statement of Financial Activities when The Charity is legally entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy.

Donations and fundraising events from private individuals and sponsors are taken into account on the basis of cash receipts. Donations received in respect of challenge events, which could become refundable if the event were cancelled, are deferred and recognised at the time of the event. Income tax recoverable is accounted for on the same basis as the income to which it relates. Bank interest and investment income is accounted for on an accruals basis.

Legacy income is recognised when the charity has sufficient evidence that a gift has been left to it (through knowledge of the existence of a valid will and the death of the benefactor); receipt is probable (there has been grant of probate and conditions attached to the legacy are within the control of the charity), and the fair value of the amount receivable, which will generally be the expected cash amount to be distributed to the charity, can be reliably measured.

Government grants received as a result of the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme are recognised as income when The Charity is entitled to the money.

Income which is material either because of its size or nature, or which is non-recurring, is treated as exceptional. Exceptional income is excluded in our underlying income.

(d) Expenditure

All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been included under expense categories that aggregate all costs for allocation to activities. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular activities they have been allocated on a basis consistent with the use of the resources.

Grants payable are charged in the year when the offer is conveyed to the recipient except in those cases where the offer is conditional, such grants being recognised as expenditure when the conditions attached are fulfilled. Grants offered subject to conditions which have not been met at the year-end are noted as a commitment, but not accrued as expenditure.

Direct costs, including directly attributable salaries, are allocated on an actual basis to the key strategic areas of activity. Overheads and other salaries are allocated between the expense headings on the basis of time spent. Employee Termination Benefits are accounted for when notice has been given to the employees concerned.

Support costs are those costs incurred directly in support of expenditure in the objects of The Charity and are allocated to activities on a consistent basis.

Governance costs are those incurred in connection with enabling The Charity to comply with external regulation, constitutional and statutory requirements and in providing support to the trustees in the discharge of their statutory duties.

(e) Stocks

Stock is measured at the lower of cost and net realisable value.

(f) Fund accounting

General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of The Charity and which have not been designated for other purposes.

Restricted funds are funds which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors which have been raised by The Charity for particular purposes. The aim and use of each restricted fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.

Investment income, gains and losses are allocated to unrestricted funds unless they are generated from investing a specific endowment.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

(g) Fixed assets

Intangible fixed assets comprise computer software purchased from third parties as well as related external development costs. Computer software costs are amortised on a straightline basis over the estimated useful lives of the software, from the date the software is available for use.

Tangible fixed assets are shown at purchased cost, together with incidental expenses of acquisition. Tangible fixed assets under £1,000 are not capitalised. Fixed assets are depreciated on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives.

(l) Pensions

The Charity operates a defined contributions pension scheme. The scheme is funded partly by contributions from the employees and from The Charity. Such contributions are held and administered completely independently of The Charity's finances. The contributions are made by The Charity and are accounted for on an accruals basis.

(m) Financial instruments

A financial asset or a financial liability is recognised only when the entity becomes a party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.

(h) Estimated useful lives

The estimated useful lives of fixed assets are as follows:

Computer equipment 3 years Office equipment 5 years Leasehold improvements the lease term Computer software 5 years

(i) Investments

Investments are revalued at fair value at the balance sheet date and any unrealised gain or loss is taken to the Statement of Financial Activities. Investments are intended to be available for use by The Charity in its charitable activities.

(j) Donated assets and services

Where services or assets are provided to The Charity as a donation that would normally be purchased from suppliers, this contribution is included in the financial statements at an estimate based on the value of the contribution to The Charity.

(k) Operating lease

Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at the transaction price, unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where it is recognised at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest for a similar debt instrument.

Financial assets that are measured at cost or amortised cost are reviewed for objective evidence of impairment at the end of each reporting date. If there is objective evidence of impairment, an impairment loss is recognised in profit or loss immediately.

(n) Going concern

No material uncertainties that may cast significant doubt about the ability of The Charity to continue as a going concern have been identified by management or the trustees.

The Charity has sufficient cash and investments to cover current liabilities and research grant commitments.

The financial statements are accordingly prepared on the Going Concern basis.

The Charity classifies the lease of Fleet 27 as an operating lease. Rental charges are provided over the term of the lease (15 years).

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

3. INCOME

a. Donations and Legacies

			Total			Total
	Unrestricted	Restricted	2024	Unrestricted	Restricted	2023
	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Ordinary activities:
Regular giving	381	75	456	336	76	412
Donations, appeals and
fundraising	8,799	1,443	10,242	7,201	1,780	8,981
Gift aid	874	45	919	970	47	1,017
Legacies	789	141	930	949	70	1,019
Government grants	83	-	83	-	540	540
	10,926	1,704	12,630	9,456	2,513	11,969

Government grants consist of amounts received under the COVID Medical Research Charity Support Fund.

b. Other trading

Other trading income comprises income from fundraising events such as The Twilight Walk and community events £900,000 (2023: £300,000), product sales £82,000 (2023: £54,000) and services sales £20,000 (2023: £9,000).

4. ANALYSIS OF RESOURCES EXPENDED

			Support	2024
	Direct Costs	Grants	Costs	Total
	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Raising funds	2,891	-	272	3,163
Charitable activities:
Research	1,507	5,415	85	7,007
Patient support	2,806	-	152	2,958
Campaigning and raising awareness	1,399	-	132	1,531
Total expenditure on charitable
activities	5,712	5,415	369	11,496
Total expenditure	8,603	5,415	641	14,659

			Support	2023
	Direct Costs	Grants	Costs	Total
	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Raising funds	2,678	-	245	2,923
Charitable activities:
Research	818	3,885	72	4,775
Patient support	2,204	-	123	2,327
Campaigning and raising awareness	1,104	-	106	1,210
Total expenditure on charitable
activities	4,126	3,885	301	8,312
Total expenditure	6,804	3,885	546	11,235

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

5. RESEARCH GRANT COST ANALYSIS

	2024	2023
	£'000	£'000
Research programmes	3,938	2,002
Research projects	758	961
Clinical trials	719	909
Conferences	-	13
	5,415	3,885

A breakdown of research costs by individual award is provided in note 21.

6. SUPPORT COSTS BY ACTIVITY

		Central facilities	Central
	Finance and	& information	management &
	human resources	technology	governance	Total
2024	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Raising funds	75	138	59	272
Charitable activities:
Research	23	44	18	85
Patient support	42	77	33	152
Campaigning and raising awareness	36	67	29	132
2024 Total	176	326	139	641

		Central facilities	Central
	Finance and	& information	management &
	human resources	technology	governance	Total
2023	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Raising funds	66	124	55	245
Charitable activities:
Research	20	36	16	72
Patient support	33	63	28	124
Campaigning and raising awareness	29	53	23	105
2023 Total	148	276	122	546

Governance costs of £82,000 (2023: £84,000) are included in central management & governance.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

7. GOVERNANCE COSTS

	2024	2023
	£'000	£'000
Auditor's remuneration	32	27
Trustee meetings	1	3
Legal and professional fees	1	1
Staf	48	53
	82	84

In addition to Auditor’s remuneration for audit shown above, a further £840 was paid for accounting and tax advice (2023: £1,210). Trustees received no remuneration (2023: £nil). Trustees received £127 reimbursement for expenses in the year (2023: £nil). The premium in respect of professional liability insurance covering trustee indemnity was £5,179 (2023: £4,511).

8. STAFF COSTS

		Group			Company
	2024		2023	2024	2023
	£'000		£'000	£'000	£'000
Wages and salaries	4,304		3,496	4,223	3,391
Social security costs	416		335	405	321
Payments to defned contribution pension plans	310		272	310	272
	5,030		4,103	4,938	3,984

During the year redundancy payments were made totalling £nil (2023: £3,000). At 31 March 2024 there was £nil provided (2023 £nil).

The average number of employees in the Group during the year was 116 (2023: 100) and in Company was 115 (2023: 99).

The number of employees whose total employee benefits (excluding employer pension costs) amounted to over £60,000 in the year were as follows:

	2024	2023
£60,001 - £70,000	2	-
£70,001 - £80,000	2	2
£80,001 - £90,000	3	2
£90,001 - £100,000	-	-
£100,001 - £110,000	-	1

Total employment costs of the Senior Leadership Team who are considered to be the key management personnel of The Charity was £708,000 (2023: £661,000).

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

9. TAXATION

The Brain Tumour Charity is a registered charity and all of its activities fall within the exemptions afforded to charities under taxation legislation. Subsidiaries in the Group donate any net trading profit to The Brain Tumour Charity and accordingly have no taxable income. No charge to taxation therefore arises.

10. INTANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

	Computer Software
	£'000
Cost
At 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024	161
Depreciation
At 1 April 2023	154
Charge for the year	6
At 31 March 2024	160
Net book value
At 31 March 2024	1
At 31 March 2023	7

11. TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

		Computers
	Leasehold	and Ofce
	Improvements	Equipment	Total
	£'000	£'000	£'000
Cost
At 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024	292	174	466
Depreciation
At 1 April 2023	53	169	222
Charge for the year	19	4	23
At 31 March 2024	72	173	245
Net book value
At 31 March 2024	220	1	221
At 31 March 2023	239	5	244

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

12. INVESTMENTS

(a) Subsidiary Investment

Equity investment in group undertakings

Cost	£
At 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024	201

The Charity owns 100% of the £1 ordinary share capital of Medli Health Holding Ltd, a company incorporated in England and Wales, company number 14368728. Medli Health Holding Ltd owns 100% of Medli Health Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales, company number 14371364.

The Charity owns 100% of the £1 ordinary share capital of Acquist Data Holdings Ltd, a company incorporated in England and Wales, company number 13951266. Acquist Data Holdings Ltd owns 100% of the £1 ordinary share capital of Acquist Data Ltd, a company incorporated in England and Wales, company number 13951572.

The purpose of the above companies is to commercialise intellectual property created in developing the BRIAN database, to generate income to be donated to The Charity.

The Charity owns 100% of the £1 ordinary share capital of TBTC Trading Ltd, a company incorporated in England and Wales, company number 08855559. The business activity of TBTC Trading Ltd is retailing. The net trading profit of TBTC Trading Ltd consolidated in these accounts, as set out below, will be donated to The Brain Tumour Charity.

	2024	2023
	£'000	£'000
Turnover	74	54
Cost of sales	(45)	(39)
Gross proft	29	15
Other operating expenses	(7)	(3)
Proft before donation	22	12
Donation	(12)	(41)
Retained proft/ (loss)	10	29

Cost of sales represent cost of stock sold in the year and the cost of fulfilment of orders.

At 31 March 2024 the aggregate assets of TBTC Trading Ltd were £53,000 (2023: £41,000), aggregate liabilities £30,000 (2023: £29,000) and shareholder’s funds £23,000 (2023: £12,000).

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

The net trading loss of Medli Health Ltd is as set out below.

	2024	2023
	£'000	£'000
Turnover	20	9
Expenditure	(402)	(776)
Retained (loss)	(382)	(767)

At 31 March 2024 the aggregate assets of Medli Health Ltd were £142,000 (2023: £89,000) aggregate liabilities £1,291,000 (2023: £856,000) and shareholder’s deficit £1,149,000 (2023: £767,000). Medli Health Holding Ltd, Acquist Data Ltd and Acquist Data Holdings Ltd did not trade during the year.

(b) General investments

Equity investment in group undertakings

(b) General investments Equity investment in group undertakings
	2024	2023
Group and Company	£'000	£'000
At 1 April	13,838	14,536
Additions at cost	471	361
Disposals	(387)	(290)
Net unrealised proft/(loss) on revaluation	714	(769)
At 31 March	14,636	13,838
Historical cost	12,469	12,298
	2024	2023
Investments at market value comprised:	£'000	£'000
UK equities	3,191	3,234
Overseas equities	4,377	3,537
Property	239	206
Multi asset funds	887	766
Alternative investments	93	144
Fixed income securities	5,819	5,834
Cash held within the investment portfolios	29	116
Accrued income	1	1
At 31 March	14,636	13,838

Financial instruments

During the year income from listed investments was £472,000 (2023: £356,000) and interest on deposits £91,000 (2023: £27,000). Financial assets measured at fair value through income and expenditure amounted to £14,636k (2023 £13,838k) comprise fixed asset investments. The value of investments is calculated with reference to the market value of the shareholding.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

13. DEBTORS

	Consolidated	Consolidated	Company
	2024	2023	2024	2023
	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Trade debtors	171	715	169	715
Accrued income and prepayments	1,161	844	1,161	844
Other debtors	146	134	40	-
Amounts owed by Group companies	-	-	128	13
	1,478	1,693	1,498	1,572

14. CREDITORS

Donations received in respect of challenge events, which could become refundable if the event were cancelled, are deferred and recognised at the time of the event. In the year to 31 March 2024 £357,000 (2023: £302,000) of income received in the year was deferred and £310,000 (2023: £260,000), brought forward from previous periods, was released.

	Consolidated	Consolidated		Company
	2024	2023	2024	2023
	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Grants payable	10,424	11,410	10,424	11,410
Accruals and deferred income	459	372	446	366
Trade creditors	192	121	185	111
Other creditors	51	67	51	67
Social security and other taxes	116	81	116	69
Amounts owed to Group companies	-	-	-	-
	11,242	12,051	11,222	12,023

15. PROVISION FOR LIABILITIES

					Consolidated		Company
					2024	2023	2024	2023
					£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
At	1	April and	31	March	100	100	100	100

The provision relates to the future cost of obligations under the terms of a property operating lease at Fleet 27.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

16. RESEARCH COMMITMENTS

At 31 March The Charity had authorised commitments that were subject to outstanding conditions expected to fall due as follows:

	2024	2023
	£'000	£'000
Within one year	5,237	3,765
Between one and two years	3,717	3,101
Between two and three years	2,858	1,931
Between three and four years	1,270	1,846
Between four and fve years	-	90
Five years and further	-	-
	13,082	10,733

The above commitments will be funded from reserves and future income.

17. OPERATING LEASE COMMITMENTS

The total of future minimum lease payments on operating leases are as follows:

	On	Property	On	Equipment
	2024	2023	2024	2023
Group and Company	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Within one year	218	216	10	10
Between one and fve years	467	685	28	38
	685	901	38	48
Operating lease charges in the year	216	211	10	15

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

18. ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BETWEEN FUNDS

	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total
	Funds	Funds	2024
2024	£'000	£'000	£'000
Intangible fxed assets	1	-	1
Tangible fxed assets	221	-	221
Investments	14,636	-	14,636
Other current assets	1,540	3,475	5,015
Liabilities	(9,196)	(2,146)	(11,342)
	7,202	1,329	8,531
	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total
	Funds	Funds	2023
2023	£'000	£'000	£'000
Intangible fxed assets	7	-	7
Tangible fxed assets	244	-	244
Investments	13,838	-	13,838
Other current assets	687	5,606	6,293
Liabilities	(9,098)	(3,053)	(12,151)
	5,678	2,553	8,231

19. FUNDS

19. FUNDS
	At 1 April	Incoming	Resources	Fund	Investment	At	31 March
Consolidated	2023	resources	expended	transfers	gains		2024
2024	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000		£'000
Restricted funds:
Research funds	1,169	1,141	(1,311)	-	-		999
Everest fund	745	184	(929)	-	-		-
Awareness funds	159	4	(163)	-	-		-
Support funds	480	452	(602)	-	-		330
	2,553	1,781	(3,005)	-	-		1,329
Unrestricted funds:
General reserve	3,985	11,395	(9,950)	-	764		6,194
Designated funds	1,693	1,019	(1,704)	-	-		1,008
	5,678	12,414	(11,654)	-	764		7,202
	8,231	14,195	(14,659)	-	764		8,531

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

	At 1 April	Incoming	Resources	Fund	Investment	At 31 March
Company	2023	resources	expended	transfers	gains	2024
2024	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Restricted funds:
Research funds	1,169	1,141	(1,311)	-	-	999
Everest fund	745	184	(929)	-	-	-
Awareness funds	159	4	(163)	-	-	-
Support funds	480	452	(602)	-	-	330
	2,553	1,781	(3,005)	-	-	1,329
Unrestricted funds:				-
General reserve	3,843	11,313	(9,822)	-	764	6,098
Designated funds	1,693	1,019	(1,704)	-	-	1,008
	5,536	12,332	(11,526)	-	764	7,106
	8,089	14,113	(14,531)	-	764	8,435
	At 1 April	Incoming	Resources	Fund	Investment	At 31 March
Consolidated	2022	resources	expended	transfers	gains	2023
2023	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Restricted funds:					-
Research funds	2,199	1,482	(2,683)	171	-	1,169
Everest fund	-	545	200	-	-	745
Awareness funds	382	114	(337)	-	-	159
Support funds	675	451	(475)	(171)	-	480
	3,256	2,592	(3,295)	-	-	2,553
Unrestricted funds:
General reserve	2,662	9,302	(7,120)	-	(859)	3,985
Designated funds	1,692	821	(820)	-	-	1,693
	4,354	10,123	(7,940)	-	(859)	5,678
	7,610	12,715	(11,235)	-	(859)	8,231
	At 1 April	Incoming	Resources	Fund	Investment	At 31 March
Company	2022	resources	expended	transfers	gains	2023
2023	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Restricted funds:
Research funds	2,199	1,482	(2,683)	171	-	1,169
Everest fund	-	545	200	-	-	745
Awareness funds	382	114	(337)	-	-	159
Support funds	675	451	(475)	(171)	-	480
	3,256	2,592	(3,295)	-	-	2,553
Unrestricted funds:
General reserve	2,621	9,280	(7,199)	-	(859)	3,843
Designated funds	1,692	821	(820)	-	-	1,693
	4,313	10,101	(8,019)	-	(859)	5,536
	7,569	12,693	(11,314)	-	(859)	8,089

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

PURPOSE OF RESTRICTED FUNDS

Research funds Research funds comprise income which is restricted to expenditure on research, an analysis of research expenditure by award is provided in note 21.

Everest fund The Everest Centre is a specific programme for Research into Paediatric Low Grade Brain Tumours. Awareness funds Awareness funds comprise income which is restricted to raising awareness of brain tumours across the UK. Our current campaign is Better Safe Than Tumour. Support funds Support funds comprise funds raised and used to provide support to individuals and families affected by brain tumours through the operation of a helpline, support groups and networks, responding to email enquiries and any other activities that may be beneficial to those affected.

Designated funds represent accumulated net income raised by our Supporter Groups where they have expressed a preference over how the funds they raise should be spent. Supporter Group preferences typically include our research and support activities. In addition, approved funding of a Chair position at a UK university has also been classed as designated funds.

Fund transfers represent transfers between funds to apply income raised to specific causes for the Lewis Moody Foundation.

20. RELATED PARTIES

The Charity owns 100 of the issued £1 ordinary shares of TBTC Trading Ltd, a company with the same registered address as The Charity. TBTC Trading Ltd acts as a sales agent on behalf of The Charity. At 31 March 2024 The Charity was owed £24,000 from TBTC Trading Ltd (2023: £24,000).

The Charity owns 100 of the issued £1 ordinary shares of Acquist Data Holdings Limited, a company with the same registered address as The Charity. Acquist Data Holdings Limited wholly owns the share capital of Acquist Data Limited.

The Charity owns 1 of the issued £1 ordinary shares of Medli Health Holding Limited, a company with the same registered address as The Charity. Medli Health Holding Limited wholly owns the share capital of Medli Health Limited.

Acquist Data Limited was formed to commercialise the intellectual property developed by The Charity in creating its BRIAN app and database. At 31 March 2024 The Charity:

• Was owed £400,000 (2023: £400,000) from Acquist Data Ltd in the form of an intercompany loan bearing interest at 3% above Bank of England Base Rate.

• Was owed £31,702 (2023: £nil) from Acquist Data Ltd on an intercompany balance.

• Was owed £860,000 (2023: £500,000) from Medli Health Ltd in the form of intercompany loans bearing interest at 3% above Bank of England Base Rate.

• Was owed £71,443 (2023: £10,282) from Medli Health Ltd on an intercompany balance.

• The Charity has fully provided as a bad debt provision for the loans owed to it from Medli Health Ltd totalling £860,000 and from Acquist Data Ltd £400,000.

• Was owed £300 from Acquist Data Holdings Ltd (2023: £nil)

• Was owed £199 from Medli Health Holding Ltd (2023: £199)

Acquist Data Ltd is owed £345,958 from Medli Health Ltd and has fully provided for this as a potential bad debt.

Trustees, their close family members and entities they control made donations to The Charity totalling £216,739 (2023: £36,536) during the year, including a £150,000 Gifts in Kind. They also paid contributions totalling £713 (2023: £65) for purchases.

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

21. RESEARCH AWARDS

21. RESEARCH AWARDS
	2024	2023
	£'000	£'000
Programme - Jones - DKFZ - Everest Centre	988	(200)
Programme - Kennedy - University Southampton - PNET5 QoL	61	46
Programme - Northcott - St Judes - MERIT	184	243
Programme - Hankinson - University Colorado - Adamantinomous craniopharyngioma	20	142
Programme - Parrinello - UCL - Mapping spatio-temporal heterogenity	218	374
Programme - Gilbertson - CRUK Cambridge Cancer Institute- ST-EP-RELA and CPC	304	302
Programme - Carragher - University Edinburgh - Therapeutic combinations in GBM	525	479
Programme - Kool & Becker - Heidelberg - COMMAND	259	-
Programme - Ishihara - Imperial College - Elimination of recurrent Glioblastoma	349	-
Programme - Barbera - Neural Development Unit TANGENTIAL	273	-
Programme - Hargrave - UCL -CONNECT TarGeT	176	-
Programme - Quest for Cures 2019 - Chesler ICR	266	292
Programme - Quest for Cures 2019 - Beroukhim - Dana-Farber	315	324
Total Programmes	3,938	2,002
Project - Jones - ICR - Gene editing for DIPG - Billie Butterfy fund	-	(4)
Project - Thomas - Nottingham Childrens' Hospital - AC therapy in young people	-	83
Project - Clinical Biomarkers 2019/2 - Zadeh - UHN	58	99
Project - Clinical Biomarkers 2019/2 - Euskirchen - Charite Hospital	-	96
Project - Future Leaders 2019 - Croal - Nottingham	-	66
Project - Future Leaders 2019 - Watson - Lausanne	-	60
Project - Future Leaders 2019 - Miller - Massachusetts	-	60
Project - Future Leaders 2019 - Rendo - Dana-Farber	-	60
Project - Future Leaders 2022/3 - De Martino - New York	-	74
Project - Future Leaders 2022/3 - Taylor - Cambridge	-	67
Project - Future Leaders 2022/3 - Mount - Harvard Masschusetts - Enhancing CAR-T cell therapies for gliomas	-	75
Project - Future Leaders 2022/3 - Rominiyi - Shefeld	-	75
Project - Future Leaders 2022/3 - Alvarez-Prado - Lausanne	-	75
Project - Future Leaders 2022/3 - Vinel - London	-	75
Project - Watson - Lausanne	150	-
Project - Miller - Massachusetts	150	-
Project - Williams - IC London	46	-
Project - Davidson Uni of Cape Town	26	-
Project - Jones - ICR Centre of Excellence	200	-
Project - Brown - Royal Adelaide Hospital	59	-
Project - Aghi - University of California San Francisco	69	-
Total Projects	758	961
Clinical Trial - Watts - Birmingham - BRAIN-MATRIX	613	582
Clinical Trial - Kearns - University Birmingham - PNET5 CTU	22	44
Clinical Trial - HR-MB - Bailey - Newcastle	84	89
Clinical Trial - ARISTOCRAT - Short - Leeds	-	194
Total Clincal Trials	719	909
Conferences, workshops and other	-	13

5,415 3,885

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024

thebraintumourcharity.org

Registered office: Fleet 27, Rye Close, Fleet, Hampshire, GU51 2UH © The Brain Tumour Charity 2024. Registered Charity in England and Wales (1150054) and Scotland (SC045081).

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The Brain Tumour Charity Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024