Winner: Gina Long MBE
Gina is a lifelong charity fundraiser and until recently she ran her own successful charity, GeeWizz, which supported local projects in Suffolk as well as national charities such as Sarcoma UK. She became involved with Sarcoma UK after her daughter Ali was diagnosed with myxoid liposarcoma in 2013. Gina and GeeWizz have donated hundreds of thousands of pounds over the last ten years and she became Sarcoma UK’s first Ambassador. She also sits on our Genomics Development Board.
Leona O’Neill MBE
Sarcoma UK Ambassador Leona set up the Boom Foundation after she lost her fiancé Philip to sarcoma just six weeks before their wedding day in 2013. The Boom Foundation remains the only sarcoma charity based in Northern Ireland and the money they raise is split between offering support to patients there and funding research via Sarcoma UK. The charity has donated well over a hundred thousand pounds to Sarcoma UK and continues to offer support, information and care for patients.
Professor Winette van der Graaf
Winette is a medical oncologist based at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam. She specialises in teenagers and young adults with sarcoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) and desmoids. She is the President of the European Organisation for the Research and Treatment of Cancer. Winette has much experience in clinical and scientific international leadership in oncology and cancer clinical research. She spent three years at the Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute for Cancer Research in London.
Markus Wartenberg
For the last 20 years Markus has been a senior manager in the German non-profit organisation Das Lebenshaus (‘The House of Life’) which supports patients with rare solid tumours such as sarcoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) and kidney cancers. He is Chair of the Sarcoma Patients Global Network (SPAGN), and he sits on a number of national and international boards and groups such as the ESMO Patient Advocacy Working Group.
