CHARITY founders learned about vital research into new cancer treatments they are helping to fund on a visit to a top research facility.

The Tom Bowdidge Youth Cancer Foundation, based in West Bergholt, has spent £250,000 funding the work at Institute of Cancer Research in Surrey and has now promised a further £176,000 over the next three years.

The institute, based in Sutton, will use the vital money to develop and characterise further sarcoma models and pursue an exciting study focused on a potential new treatment for Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumour (DSCRT).

The cancer is the same type Tom Bowdidge died from in October 2013.

He had been diagnosed aged just 18 with a soft tissue sarcoma in his peritoneum and pelvis, an extremely rare and aggressive cancer.

He instantly set out to help others who found themselves in the same situation and raised more than £170,000 for charity to help put an end to the illness.

In April 2013, he decided he wanted to start his own charity to support teenage cancer patients.

Months after he tragically died, parents Nikki and Richard set up the the charity in his name.

Mr and Mrs Bowdidge toured the institute with three other foundations trustees.

CEO Nikki said: “With so much money involved it is vital that the trustees feel the money is being spent in a responsible way and the only way to do this is to visit the labs to see the work being carried out first-hand.

“We were completely inspired by the enthusiasm and knowledge of Prof Janet Shipley and her team.

"The visit started with a very detailed presentation of the work they are doing and how they will be moving forward before we toured the laboratories.”

Prof Shipley is one of the world’s leading authorities on research into soft tissue sarcomas, and the only UK scientist with a dedicated effort into DSCRT research.

Her goal is for children and teenagers with rare sarcomas, including rhabdomyosarcomas and DSRCT, to be offered more effective and less toxic treatments.

These new treatments would target the specific molecular flaws that drive the growth of these deadly tumours.

Children and teenagers still tend to be treated with older-style, non-specific and toxic chemotherapy drugs originally designed for adults, which can fail to cure and result in severe treatment-related side- effects.

New strategies using more targeted therapies are required that will be derived from a greater understanding of the underlying genetics and molecular biology of childhood cancers.