Our history
We were established as a neuroblastoma charity in 2006 (initially called 2Simple Trust) in support of Richard and Yvonne Brown - parents seeking to fundraise to access treatment abroad for their son, Jack. Jack had run out of treatment options in the UK.
Jack’s campaign received worldwide attention. In 2009, the charity went through a transformative period when several other families came into it to fundraise for anti-GD2 antibody therapy in America and Germany, a treatment showing great promise at the time, but was not yet available in the UK.
This committed group of families drove the direction and activities of the charity that, at the time, had just one full-time member of staff. Back then, the charity’s sole purpose was to host families’ fundraising campaigns. All fundraising activity, communications, marketing, liaising between institutions at home and abroad, organising logistics of travel and accommodation, was undertaken by families themselves.
Between 2011 and 2015, the charity underwent several rebrands, eventually changing its name to Solving Kids' Cancer UK.
The picture is vastly different today; over the years we expanded the scope of our support for families, to remove additional burdens as much as possible. We now provide a comprehensive support service that goes far beyond simply supporting fundraising efforts to access treatment not available through the NHS. Though we continue to specialise and focus on neuroblastoma, we recognise that the charity's expertise and resources can be utilised and extended to benefit children's cancers more broadly.
In 2012 we also held our first UK Neuroblastoma Parent Conference, bringing families together with each other and the international neuroblastoma experts. Since 2020 the event has been virtual and the Neuroblastoma Parent Global Symposium was born - with over 1,300 attendees from 50 different countries.
In more recent years, we established a rigorous best-in-class research funding process and a Scientific Advisory Board of acknowledged experts in the field, gained accreditation from the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) and National Institute of Health Research Charities, been awarded the PIF TICK, an indicator of trusted health information provision, and successfully managed two international funding calls. The charity also played a leading role in securing National Institute for Health and Care (NICE) approval of anti-GD2 therapy on the NHS.
Today, we are proud to be regarded as demonstrating excellence in both our family support services and research functions and have a strong team championing our mission and vision.
Jack and his family continue to inspire our work. After Jack passed away in 2009, Yvonne and Richard set up their own charity called Joining Against Cancer in Kids (J-A-C-K) to improve survival for children with neuroblastoma by funding research. They’ve raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to further research through J-A-C-K, and we’ve been privileged to partner with J-A-C-K on several initiatives for the benefit of children and families affected by neuroblastoma.