Welcome to Jemima’s Wish
Raising awareness and funds for DIPG brain tumour research to make this cancer history.
NEWS FLASH
“A robot, bought with the money she crowdfunded in the weeks before succumbing to brain cancer, is doing the job she assigned – finding a way to save other children from the “monster” that claimed her young life.…”
Our mission
Jemima’s Wish website exists to do 3 things in a ‘who? what? and how much?’ way. Raising awareness of DIPG in medical and practical terms. Telling Jemima’s story and honouring her wish to defeat DIPG - so no other kid will be told they’ve got untreatable and incurable brain cancer. And to generate funding to help find the cure.
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We knew nothing about DIPG until we had to. But it’s shocking and terrible and this website exists to inform you about it; both in practical medical terms, and what that translated to in our experience.
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Jemima’s Incredible Journey is a pretty amazing story of a regular teenage girl who walked through the fire, stared a terminal diagnosis in the eye, and evolved into a selfless heroine. Her story deserves to be shared.
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Since Jemima’s Wish closed on the Give A Little platform, we’ve been asked numerous times how people can continue to support her work. We’ve created a Charitable Trust to do just that.
DIPG patients today face the same prognosis as a person diagnosed 50 years ago.
Brain tumours remain the most common cause of cancer-related death in children, and DIPG is the leading cause of death from paediatric brain tumours. There are no effective treatment options and no chance of survival. Only 10% of children with DIPG survive for 2 years following their diagnosis, and less than 1% survive for 5 years.
The median survival time is 9 months from diagnosis, after receiving palliative radiotherapy which is the only ‘standard of care’ treatment pathway.
Jemima’s Wish exists because she believed she could help find the cure. Even when it was too late for her. Her wish was to contribute to finding an effective treatment and a cure for other kids who get dealt this terrible hand.
We intend to use our energy and amassed funding to perpetuate Jemima’s work on earth, by educating people on DIPG, and supporting research and clinical trials.
What is DIPG?
Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) is a high-grade cancer that grows like a spider-web in a part of the brain stem, called the pons.
As the tumour grows it puts pressure on the surrounding nerves that control essential functions such as swallowing, eye movement, eyesight, and balance.
DIPG most commonly affects children between the ages of 4 and 11 and accounts for roughly 10-15% of all paediatric brain tumours.
While the ability to think, understand, recognise, feel and remember are all preserved; as the tumour progresses it interferes with breathing and heartbeat, which ultimately results in death.