Liz Clarke-Saul was diagnosed with adamantinoma in 2001 at the age of 12. Following multiple surgeries, Liz had her leg amputated in 2003, when she was just 14 years old. In 2018, Liz’s cancer returned and spread to her lungs. She was then told that it was incurable.
Liz decided to set up a Special Fund with the Bone Cancer Research Trust in 2019, called The Liz Clarke-Saul Fund, to change the landscape of adamantinoma research.
Adamantinoma is a rare form of bone cancer, amounting to less than 1% of all bone cancer diagnoses. There is currently no research into new treatments for the disease, due to the lack of research funding and availability of patient tumour samples. The Bone Cancer Research Trust is now supporting the five NHS bone cancer surgical centres in England to enable collection of adamantinoma samples to support future research projects. However, we know more needs to be done.
The Liz-Clarke Saul Fund has already raised over £25,000, beating their initial target of £20,000! Thanks to the efforts of Liz’s family and friends we are delighted to announce the opening of our first ever research grant call dedicated to adamantinoma research.
This grant will fund UK scientists to carry out pioneering research, with the ultimate objective of identifying new treatments for adamantinoma. This will be the first grant in our future adamantinoma research programme, starting with an Ideas Grant of £25,000.
Liz, her family and her friends have been incredibly dedicated to fundraising. There has been pub quizzes, half marathons, bake sales, carolling, school fairs, bucket collections and even a dog show! They have lots more exciting things planned for 2020, to reach their new target of £90,000.
“I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped us to reach this point as it would not have been possible without them. It was a real ambition of mine to be able to fund the first ever research project into adamantinoma and I am delighted that we have been able to do this within 7 months of starting our fundraising. I really hope this is the start of transforming the landscape into the disease and we look forward to continuing our fundraising to support the next stage.” – Liz
Zoe Davison, Head of Research and Information at the Bone Cancer Research Trust, said:
“Adamantinoma is one of the rarest forms of primary bone cancer and we are dedicated to improving outcomes for patients with this disease. We are delighted to be launching the UK's first dedicated research programme into adamantinoma and we would like to thank Liz, and all of her family and friends for their continued support”
To read more about The Liz Clarke-Saul Fund click here.
If you are a researcher and would like more information about the adamantinoma Ideas Grant, please click below.