The Match of the Day host and former England striker is the patron of Cure Leukaemia
Football legend Gary Lineker is backing a revolutionary new initiative that strikes a deeply personal chord, following the health struggles his son faced in early childhood. The celebrated Match of the Day presenter and ex-England football ace has thrown his full support behind Cure Leukaemia’s latest endeavour the ATICUS Network.
Lineker, who was appointed patron earlier this year, has been actively involved with the Birmingham-based charity since supporting their ‘Finish It’ campaign in September 2022. His commitment to the cause is fuelled by the harrowing experience of his son George’s fight against leukaemia as an infant during the 1990s.
Now healthy and in his 30s, George’s recovery inspires the Lineker family to help ensure other children can have the chance for the same positive outcome.
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Cure Leukaemia has rolled out The ATICUS Network, an innovative partnership among 11 top UK Children’s Hospitals, aimed at transforming how clinical trials for paediatric blood cancer patients are administered.
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Lineker spoke out, revealing the harsh reality: “Four children every day are diagnosed with blood cancer in the UK, affecting children as young as 3 months old, and is the most common cancer in children and teens, including my son George who was less than a year old when he was diagnosed,” reports Birmingham Live.
“The ATICUS Network is ground-breaking in the blood cancer landscape and will provide hope to so many children and their families – and just needs funding. We shouldn’t be relying on patients, their families and friends to fundraise through crazy challenges to fund the Research Nurses required to open the ATICUS network.”
ATICUS stands for Accelerating Trials in Children Undergoing Stem Cell Transplant. London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, where George was treated more than three decades ago, is among the hospitals taking part along with Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
The others encompass Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, The Royal Marsden Hospital (Surrey), Great North Children’s Hospital (Newcastle), Royal Hospital For Children (Glasgow), Leeds Children Hospital, Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, St Mary’s Hospital (London) and University College London Hospital (London).
During a poignant return to Great Ormond Street Hospital with George in 2022, Lineker shared with our sister publication, The Mirror: “It always gets to me, sitting there watching a parent sitting next to their child knowing it’s touch-and-go, it’s hard. But you smile, it’s lovely to take George in, he’s 30 years old and he was given very, very little chance and here he is.”
The former Leicester City, Everton, Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur and Nagoya Grampus Eight striker shared: “If you can just give them a glimmer of hope, it’s not going to make any difference to their treatment, but if it makes them feel good or gives them a nice experience for a day or so. It’s really weird talking about yourself having an impact on people because it feels a bit odd. But you do get lovely references about it and people do seem to really like that sort of thing.”
Thanks to Cure Leukaemia’s ground-breaking new initiative, children with blood cancer across the UK will now have access to potentially life-saving treatments as part of the ATICUS Networks national clinical trials. This network unites top paediatric specialists and research nurses in an effort to improve the prognosis for youngsters undergoing stem cell transplants.
Professor Rob Wynn, from the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and at the forefront of the ATICUS campaign, highlighted the crucial role of nationwide cooperation in accelerating access to these pivotal clinical trials for the young patients involved.
“Our aim as children’s doctors is to cure our patients so that they can live their life as if they never had the illness in the first place,” he explained. “It’s vital we incorporate these transformative new therapies into routine care as quickly as possible. This can only be done by increasing access to clinical trials of these new treatments. Access to clinical trials requires a funded national trial infrastructure, which we currently lack in the UK. Without such an infrastructure, real treatments that might help real children with blood cancer are often not available in the UK.”
Cure Leukaemia has recently launched its Club 10 initiative to support the ATICUS Network, urging British businesses to pledge £10,000 to expedite the start of these crucial trials.
CEO of Cure Leukaemia, James McLaughlin, underscored the urgent need for funds: “The ATICUS Network is established and ready to go, but we now need the necessary funding to begin trials and improve the blood cancer landscape for children across the UK. These trials could deliver practice-changing treatments that will save lives, but we need support to make that a reality.”
McLaughlin also did his part in fundraising by running over 220 miles across 14 days through 16 different cities in a bid to raise £100,000 for the charity. The pledge total stands impressively at £85,000 and rising.
Donations can be made here.
For further details about The ATICUS Network or to join the Club 10 initiative, visit the Cure Leukaemia website here.
