This new three-year project, which builds on the success of an earlier two-year research grant funded by the charity, Friends of Rosie Children’s Cancer Research Fund, will continue at The University of Manchester in October 2019. In common with the initial project, this new one will be led by Dr Katherine Finegan, MRPharmS.

During the initial project, Dr Finegan’s team found that a protein, called ERK5, can control the growth and spread of osteosarcomas.  By removing ERK5, they were able to slow the growth of osteosarcomas and prevent their spread to the lung (metastases).

The PhD being part-funded by Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony will build on these exciting preliminary findings to explore exactly how ERK5 controls osteosarcoma progression.  Dr Finegan comments, “This information will help us understand how ERK5-targeted therapies would work.  It will also help us understand the proteins that “talk” and “listen” to ERK5 during osteosarcoma development, something we know nothing about yet.  Understanding these “conversations” that ERK5 has in the cells enables us to find new proteins that we could target in the future to make new therapies for osteosarcoma.

“Secondly, this project will investigate if removing ERK5 can improve response to chemotherapy in models of osteosarcoma. And, finally, we will use samples donated from patients (Biobank) to confirm that our findings from osteosarcoma models translate to osteosarcoma patients.  Importantly, via another grant, we are making new compounds to target ERK5. Once these new compounds are available (by approximately end of 2020), we will use them in this project to test their effectiveness in osteosarcoma models.”

Rachel Francis of Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony Charity adds, “We’re delighted to be helping to take the very encouraging findings from the project funded by Friends of Rosie to the next stage. We’re working hard to collaborate with fellow charities and ensure our research activity is joined-up to ensure the greatest chance of success. We know Hannah would have been proud that her charity has enabled further research into this devastating disease.”

Says Friends of Rosie Chair, Felicity Goodey, “We’re delighted that our funding, which enabled this project to get off the ground, has already helped this vital research to secure further investment for the next three years. We’re hopeful that the project being funded by Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony Charity will attract large-scale funding and help to improve the prognosis and treatment for children diagnosed with osteosarcoma in the future.” Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony Charity was established by talented horse rider, Hannah Francis, following her diagnosis with the aggressive form of bone cancer in 2015. A major part of Hannah’s dream for her charity was to support vital research into osteosarcoma, which usually develops in growing bones. Hannah established her charity in March 2016 before tragically losing her life later that year at the age of just 18 years old.

In August a grand total of....

£5985

came Willberry's way to help keep #kickingcancersbutt and #makingmemories! 

This fantastic total was fund-raised for Willberry with thanks to the following incredible people and their very kind donors....

THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF WILLBERRY'S HEART x

Please email fundraising@willberrywonderpony.org if you would like to fundraise for Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony so Willberry know's how awesome our are and can included you in our fundraising news.

Willberry and his awesome Wishes team were given a 24 hour challenge when an email came in from Lyndsay asking if we could provide some special memories at Blair International Horse Trials the following day for her good friend Moira. Moira sadly has a brain tumour and is in palliative care at present, so the Willberry jumped into action to try and give Moira plenty of smiles and joy. However, as the Wishes base is in the South West we needed to find a Northern Angel – and so we contacted the wonderful Jemma Docherty who is a staunch supporter of Willberry. She immediately jumped at the opportunity and within hours had an exciting programme planned for Moira and her friend Linda the following day.

 Jemma met Moira and Linda on Thursday morning in glorious sunshine and told them about their busy day ahead!

 They then went to the lorry park where they were taken to the most fantastic lorry you can imagine, owned by Fiona and Andrew Malcolm of the Malcolm Group and huge supporters of eventing in Scotland. They all went in to enjoy a lovely lunch of soup and sandwiches, lots of chat and plenty of laughs with Simon Grieve and Wills Oakden. Moira’s stories of the amazing achievements in her life blew them away, and were an inspiration to them all.

After lunch, they were given a VIP pass to go ‘backstage’ for a tour of the stables to meet the equine stars, filled with adrenaline and anticipation of the competition ahead. They stroked some beautiful noses, met a few well-known friendly faces and were even lucky enough to meet the legend that is Ben Hobday and his lovely wife Emma. Big smiles from Moira on that one!!

In the afternoon Moira was then treated to a drive around the cross country course with the FEI Technical Delegate Michelle Debenham, with Daniel Scott jumping in as well to give her his opinion on the fences and how he thought he would ride them. She had a fantastic insight into the challenges of the course, and knew exactly where she wanted to put her seats for the best viewing point when she came back on Saturday!

The sun shone throughout the day, the atmosphere was fantastic, and some very special memories were created for a very special lady.

Willberry sends huge thanks to the organisers and all the team at Blair for their unequivocal support as always. The Eventing Family shone through once again as riders gave their time and love to make Moira at home in their world. Last, but certainly not least, MASSIVE thanks from the bottom of Willberry's heart to the amazing Jemma Docherty, Willberry’s very own Flower of Scotland.

Willberry had a great time granting a wish to the very deserving Long daughters. Danny, Isobel and Megan's father, had got in touch in search for a wish for his wife Jo, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2018 and sadly told that it had turned terminal in March 2019. Her wish was to let her two daughters meet their heroes. Isobel was first up to meet hers, the one and only Ben Hobday, and what better place than Willberry's favourite event, Badminton Horse Trials! 

Heartbreakingly Jo lost her battle just a few weeks ago so couldn’t be here at Badminton with them, but Willberry was blown away but just how overwhelming lovely this awesome family were. No doubt Jo was looking down with smiles that matched theirs.

 Willberry caught up with Isobel afterwards to see what it is really likely to be on the receiving end of his magic wand...

“What an amazing, super, #yehboi day I had on the 1st May...
This once in a life time experience began the day before when we enjoyed our stay at the Stanton Manor hotel where we spent our evening exploring the gardens after a delicious meal.

The next morning I woke filled of excitement to meet team Ben Hobday and team Willberry Wonder Pony and to have the best day ever - I never would have been able to imagine the day to have been any better ! It was my first time going to Badminton so the atmosphere as we arrived was wonderful. Of course we headed to the shopping village to go in search of items we probably didn’t need; however to the relief of my bank account I managed not to buy anything! But finally the time had come to make our way to the Willberry stand to meet team Willberry where we were welcomed with the smiling faces of the team and where given a much appreciated goodie bag so that I can continue spreading the word of Willberry. The anticipation to meet Ben Hobday was high - I kept thinking to myself what I was going to say when I met him, it was truly a dream come true.

Before I knew it I was standing in the grand Badminton stables next to Ben Hobday who included us in his Badminton experience seamlessly enabling our experience to be the absolute best it could be... the day just got better and better as we met Ben’s horse called Wizard who was being exercised by his groom Louis. As always the camera was out and multiple snaps were being taken to capture these priceless memories which my Willberry called Chillberry accompanied me throughout the whole experience and featured in multiple photos.

The moment which really took my breath away was when we made our way out onto the famous Badminton trot up with the picturesque backdrop of the Badminton house, where historical winners of Badminton had taken to the stage. The Badminton arch alike to the house itself was stunning and I vividly recall staring up at the arch with Ben beside me and appreciating just how lucky I was to be granted my Willberry wish. Ben continued to surprise us whilst we were on the trot up by saying that we were going to be in the stables when he and Wizard were doing the trot up and that he wanted us to come to one of his experience days which would be simply amazing!

The day maintained its memories when we watched Ben ride in the main arena and in the warm up arenas. Later in the day the trot up commenced and I was surrounded by all the equine super stars! Watching Ben and Wizard get smart in preparation for the trot up was a pleasure and made me appreciate the amount of hard work and organisation which goes into events like Badminton. Sighs of relief came after each horse was announced fit to compete in the competition...

The memories and experiences that I had from the 1st of May were beyond my wildest of dreams and it’s all thanks to team Willberry for granting my wish. This blog doesn’t do justice to the once in a lifetime day I had, it’s difficult to put but words all the memories I have - there are so many and I am quite literally speechless when it comes to expressing how thankful I am and how much I enjoyed it.”