A CANCER charity launched in memory of a Bowdon girl has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £100,000 to fund research to help fight childhood brain tumours.

Friends of Rosie was set up in 1991 in memory of five-years-old Rosie Larkin.

The charity is dedicated to raising money for research in Manchester into the causes, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of childhood cancer.

In the UK, childhood cancer is the leading cause of death in children, with 250 children losing their lives to cancer each year. Brain tumours claim more children’s lives than any other type of childhood cancer.

It’s facts like this that have provoked Friends of Rosie to set up its crowdfunding campaign to help fight childhood brain tumours.

The campaign, which went live on July 3 and has an ambitious target of raising £100k by September, is focused on a specific research project being undertaken at the Manchester Cancer Research Centre.

The project is looking into the feasibility of using cells created by the body's immune system to shrink or destroy brain tumours in children, known as immunotherapy. This therapy would be used to treat childhood brain tumours that currently cannot be treated by conventional methods.

Visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/immunotherapy-for-childhood-brain-tumours-research to support the project.

In the [past few months, in Manchester alone, three little girls have died from the type of brain tumours this research is looking to treat.

Lisa McLoughlin’s daughter, Jessica Green, also lost her battle with cancer in 2014 after a brave fight against an aggressive brain tumour.

Lisa said: “Childhood brain tumours get so little funding and there are so few treatment options available. We’re doing everything we can to raise awareness and help others.”