ALEGRA
In Memory of our Angel
Alegra was born 19th September 2011. The most incredible little girl loved by all. Loving, caring and the worlds best big sister and sharer. Sadly, on the 7th October 2017 Alegra lost her battle with Brain Cancer at the age of 6, only 10 months from diagnosis.
She made it seem okay that this disease lurked inside her. Alegra never let it define her.
She went to school everyday, swam, danced and attended gymnastics classes. All was going too well post surgery and treatment, for reasons that all struggle to understand things changed for Alegra so quickly. She was promised more time here, 6 years are clearly not enough.
"It was not our choice to survive without you, so we choose to live and to honour you." Dad & Mum xx
Where funds are going...
With the love and support of the Charlie Teo Foundation we have a very special announcement. The Charlie Teo Foundation has created
the “Alegra’s Army Grant”
and we have our very first recipient.
The moment we were told of Josie and her fathers great work in the fight against DIPG we knew this is where our funds needed to be. Charlie’s team responsible for accepting applicants for our Grant gave the green light as Dr Dun’s research is most promising. Dr Matt Dun is a cancer researcher from the University of Newcastle, who took on the brain cancer research fight when his daughter Josie was diagnosed with DIPG in 2018. With a heavy heart we share with you the passing of Josie just last Saturday 14th December 2019. The award of $326,000 is for better immune-based treatments for children with DIPG, the deadliest childhood cancer with an average survival rate of just 9 months.
The legacy of two
little girls means other
innocent angels get a fighting chance
Our pledge remains true. The Little Legs Foundation continues to spread its message of hope and compassion. It is through our connection with The Charlie Teo Foundation that we believe a change to current brain cancer statistics will be made. Professor Charlie Teo gives his patients and their families the greatest hope. Hope he gave Alegra and her family. Charlie’s continued fight against the disease regardless of the adversity is partly why Little Legs Foundation exists. Giving our little friends battling brain cancer the hope they deserve regardless of the current statistic. Whilst we continue to raise awareness and funds we trust in Charlie’s team to distribute them in order to find better treatments and ultimately a cure for childhood brain cancer.
Nasal Drug Delivery
We are breaking down barriers.
A/Prof Hong Chen, biomedical engineer from Washington University in St Louis US, is an expert in focused ultrasound. Her passion began when was an undergraduate student after a visit to a Chinese hospital where she saw patients lining up for the focused ultrasound treatment. That image remained burned in her mind and she centred her future research career to developing focused ultrasound as a diagnostic and treatment tool for brain cancer.
The project has been awarded up to $714k through the Alegra's Army grant and explores a new method to bypass the brain’s natural shield (the blood-brain barrier) and deliver drugs right to the tumour and at the exact dose needed to treat the cancer. The team has already proven this method successful; and this project is the last step before we can help pipeline this to early phase clinical trial for brain cancer patients.
This is the first project to develop a nasal spray to non-invasively deliver drugs to the brain. It pairs several technologies – nanoparticles which house the drug – focused ultrasound and microbubbles which directs the drug containing nanoparticles to where they need to go in the brain – all via delivery through the nose.
Drug therapy for brain cancer is challenging because the blood-brain barrier makes it difficult for drugs to penetrate and accumulate at the right dosage needed to have an effect. This potential new method provides a non-invasive and effective way to get the drugs right to where they need to be working.