Big donations for the Big Give Christmas Challenge
For the first time, Neuroblastoma UK took part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge 2023, the UK’s largest matched funding campaign, between 12pm on 28th November and 12pm on 5th December 2023.
Our aim was to raise £8,000 - and we did it!
Thanks to pledges of £4,000 from The Hospital Saturday Fund and generous donors, your donations were matched.
We raised a grand total to £8,602 in just seven days. Amazingly, we hit our target of £8,000 with two days to go.
We were blown away by everyone’s support, thank you. The money raised from the Big Give Christmas Challenge will enable scientists to take crucial first steps on the road of discovery - and help get closer to a cure for neuroblastoma.
Why did we take part?
Too many children are dying from neuroblastoma, a rare and aggressive childhood cancer.
Despite advances in treatment, high-risk neuroblastoma has one of the lowest survival rates of all childhood cancers. Children currently receive intensive therapy that can also lead to other, lifelong health challenges.
Apple’s story
Apple was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at just three years old. She celebrated one year in remission in November and fronted our Big Give Christmas Challenge.
She endured 18 months of gruelling treatment including high dose chemotherapy, a stem-cell transplant, six rounds of radiotherapy and immunotherapy. She also needed a 10 hour surgery to remove the large tumour in her abdomen.
Thankfully Apple is now thriving and is a happy, healthy six year old. But the treatment that saved her life has caused long-term side effects including fertility issues, hearing loss and bowel issues.
More research is desperately needed to improve treatment for children like Apple and save more young lives.
One Donation. Twice the impact.
Your donations will have double the impact thanks to the Big Give Christmas Challenge.
Over the last 40 years, we’ve invested nearly £9 million into impactful research to advance our understanding of neuroblastoma, accelerate drug development and make breakthroughs in treatment.
Despite our best efforts, research into neuroblastoma remains critically under-funded in the UK. This must change. Thanks to fundraising campaigns like the Big Give Christmas Challenge, we can continue to fund much-needed research to give children with neuroblastoma the future they deserve.
A donation of £10 could buy a researcher a pack of 500 test tubes, an essential tool for cancer research.
A donation of £20 could provide a pack of microscope slides, enabling scientists to examine neuroblastoma cells in minute detail.
A donation of £50 could provide specialist equipment to help researchers effectively study and analyse neuroblastoma cells.
Thanks to you, we will fund more pre-clinical research into neuroblastoma.
If early laboratory studies show promising results, researchers can leverage further funding to develop their work and take their work forward to clinical trials.
This research will help accelerate drug development to provide safer, more effective treatment with less side effects for children with neuroblastoma in future, and ultimately a cure.
Thank you for your support
Thank you to everyone who donated to the Big Give Christmas Challenge and helped to spread the word about the campaign. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Our special thanks go to
Our Patrons Alan Carr and Scott Mills for generously donating their time to support the campaign
The Hospital Saturday Fund for being our Big Give Champion and to our Big Give Pledgers who provided the matched funds for our campaign.