The Dun Lab team welcomed Helena and Lee Dowdall (and their son Brooklyn) to the campus in May 2021. Having lost their daughter Harper to DIPG, the Dowdall Family were keen to get an inside look at how DIPG research may be able to help families that find themselves in a similar position, in the future.

Helena and Lee were able to see the living DIPG models cultured by Matt and the Cancer Signalling Group, including the cell lines grown from Maddie’s and Josephine’s tumour tissue, and have since decided to donate Harper’s biobanked tumour sample to the University of Newcastle research program.

Committed to enhancing DIPG research and the work of RUN DIPG, Helena and Lee hold their annual “Hundred4Harper” fundraiser on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, in honour of their beautiful girl that was taken by DIPG all too soon. Helena and Lee, thank you for taking the time to make the trip to Newcastle and for your ongoing commitment to improving the battle faced by kids and families

If ever there were special guests, Miss Maddie Suy was very much the most ‘special-est’. Diagnosed with DIPG in 2020, Maddie and her father Alan visited The University of Newcastle in March 2021.

The youngest visitor to put Matt through his paces, Maddie was inquisitive and attentive throughout the tour – she was even able to see her own tumour cells growing in the lab! Tissue donations like Maddie’s are instrumental to DIPG research, so it was a highlight for the team to be able to show Alan and Maddie just how much work they’ve made possible with their important decision to be involved.

Alan thank you for taking the time to see the work of Matt and the Cancer Signalling Research Group first-hand, for trusting the Dun Lab with Maddie’s precious tissue donation and for your ongoing advocacy to improve outcomes for kids and families facing DIPG.