Dawn French, Lord Charles Spencer, Nicki Chapman, Hal Cruttenden and Olympian diver Tom Daley were among those High Profile Supporters – all of whom have a close connection to the cause and continue to support our work – who sent video messages to Neil and Angela Dickson wishing them well on Neil’s retirement.
Neil and Angela Dickson first set up a group to support and raise funds for others in 1996 following the tragic death of their beloved daughter Samantha from a brain tumour, just a few days before her 17th birthday.
They discovered there was scant investment in research into the condition and little support so Angela herself answered phone calls from families facing a diagnosis and set up the first Supporter Group – of which there are now over 450 – and first patient day.
The Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust was formally registered as a charity in February 1997 and has grown from a two-person operation – Angela and Neil Dickson working from their home – to a national organisation with 120 employees based at in Fleet, Hampshire, and with an income of £14m a year.
The Dicksons took on the first employee, Elaine Holder, in 2003 after interviewing her in the conservatory. Neil joined Angela as the Charity’s Chairman in 2007 when he sold his Group of Aviation Companies.
In 2013, Neil stood down as Chairman when the charity merged with Brain Tumour UK and The Joseph Foote Foundation. Current Chair of Trustees Jack Morris praised Neil’s selflessness in facilitating the rebranding as The Brain Tumour Charity because of its wider remit, in place of the one named after his daughter.
Since then, Neil has held the post of Vice Chair of Trustees and played an active role on the finance and research committees as well as remaining a tireless fundraiser. Neil will remain on the research committee and continue his family’s involvement with The Samantha Dickson Fund supporter group which has just reached the milestone of raising £300,000 of vital funds.
In 2015, Neil and Angela Dickson were awarded MBEs by Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle and earlier this year, they both received OBEs for services to the brain tumour community. Angela remains The Charity’s first Emeritus Founder Trustee and Neil will now join her.
In March 2024, they spearheaded The Charity’s call for a National Brain Tumour Strategy, delivering an open letter to all four Health Secretaries that was signed by more than 52,000 people.
Neil said: “We leave the Charity in rude health. It has been an incredible journey, and we have met some amazing people on the way, some of them sadly are no longer with us. It is a journey that we did not want to be involved with. I describe it as being in an exclusive club that we did not want to be members of.
“The biggest achievement has been in convincing other members of ‘the club’ to turn a massive negative into a positive. This has enabled us to transform the landscape for brain tumour patients and their families in the UK. Samantha would have been very proud.”
During her speech, Dr Michele Afif, CEO of The Brain Tumour Charity (pictured top centre), said: “Neil, for me the one word that really jumps out, the one word that I’ve always used for you is visionary. Neil and Angela, you saw the gaps. You saw that there wasn’t any research going on in the right places. You saw that people needed support. You saw the need for a community, and you built that community. All the way through you had an unerring vision, so you are our inspiration and our North Star. Thank you.”
Jack Morris, Chair of Trustees at The Brain Tumour Charity (pictured top right), said: “He is incredibly passionate, incredibly caring, and incredibly kind. Neil’s legacy is absolutely huge. He and Angela have enabled this charity to grow into what is now the largest charity in the UK and the largest funder of research into brain tumours in the world.”
Berrie Norton (pictured top left), whose son Michael died from a brain tumour in 2000, was a fellow trustee from 2005 to 2022 and said the organisation had grown from “an embryo to a behemoth”.
She said: “We were not just trustees, but we were also the SLT. Neil and Angela started this on their kitchen table, and we all pitched in. We would turn up to meetings and say, ‘what needs doing?’ and we’d go off and do it and the fact that we’re standing here with more than £100m raised was a dream to us in 2004.”
The Brain Tumour Charity has raised more than £120m since it was founded and become one of the largest brain tumour charities in the world – funding pioneering research, offering support to anyone affected by the disease, and campaigning for earlier, better diagnosis.
