Our Projects
Raising awareness of childhood brain cancer
Bella the Brave supports carefully chosen projects that align with its purpose: raising awareness of childhood brain cancer and contributing to meaningful progress in how it is understood, diagnosed, and experienced by families.
Each project is shaped by lived experience and guided by the question:
what would have made a difference at the hardest moments?
Parent Support Packs
A childhood brain cancer diagnosis is overwhelming. Parents are often forced to absorb complex information while coping with shock, fear, and exhaustion.
The Parent Support Packs were created to offer practical support at the very beginning of that journey.
With the support of the Queensland Children’s Hospital, which coordinates distribution, Bella the Brave provides support packs to parents of children newly diagnosed with brain cancer. These packs are designed to be useful, thoughtful, and comforting during an incredibly difficult time.
These packs don’t change the diagnosis, but they offer practical help and a reminder that families are not alone.
Research into early diagnosis
Early diagnosis remains one of the biggest challenges in childhood brain cancer.
In 2023 Bella the Brave proudly donated a total of $80,000 to The Charlie Teo Foundation to support Professor Craig Horbinski at Northwestern University in Chicago, USA. Dr Horbinski’s research focuses on developing a blood test that could help enable earlier diagnosis of childhood brain cancer.
Earlier diagnosis has the potential to reduce delays in treatment and improve outcomes for children.
Bella the Brave received the following message of thanks from Dr Horbinski about the funding provided:
“We are grateful for your profoundly important dedication to our efforts. With this vital support, Dr Craig Horbinski and his team can take necessary steps in childhood neuro-oncology research and ultimately make contributions to medicine that will impact the health of our community and beyond. You will help us reach new heights in medical research and care. Thank you again for your exceptional support of our medical school and your continued belief in our people to bring life-changing innovation to medicine.”
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In December 2024, Dr Horbinski provided a progress update on the project, and reported that from the 77 blood samples, the blood test was able to detect those children with brain tumours with 83% accuracy, showing significant potential to help guide treatment decisions in the future.
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Details about the interim findings from the project can be found here:
Brain cancer vaccine project
In 2024 and 2025 Bella the Brave donated a total of $110,000 to the Robert Connor Dawes Foundation towards a project aimed at developing a brain cancer vaccine.
The first of its kind, the project which is being undertaken at The University of Queensland, aims to leverage mRNA technology to create a personal mRNA cancer vaccine to induce each child’s immunity against brain tumours.
Details about the project can be found here
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