Backing brave breakthroughs

How The Sir William Coxen Trust Fund and The Azaylia Foundation are accelerating paediatric cancer research at UEA.

Across the world, treatments for paediatric sarcomas have barely changed since the 1970s. For families, that can mean a punishing regimen of chemotherapy, major surgery (sometimes involving amputation), and then more chemotherapy, with survival odds that remain painfully uncertain.

At UEA’s Norwich Medical School, Dr Darrell Green (BIO06) and his team are working to shift what standard treatment can look like for children and young people facing these aggressive cancers. Their aim is simple to state and hard to deliver: treatments that are kinder, and more effective.

This sits at the heart of why Health is a priority for Dare to Do Different. In areas like paediatric cancer research, where funding is often scarce and progress can be slow, philanthropy can be the catalyst that helps move work forward, step by step, towards more treatment choices, and more reason for hope.

Dr Green’s programme brings together discovery science and the practical work required to move a potential treatment closer to use in patients. Over the past few years, the team has discovered that some cancer cells can create new genes from DNA once thought to be “silent”, revealing new biology and potential drug targets. More recently, they identified that one of these genes is targeted by treatments which are already being tested in human clinical trials. UEA’s data is now being reviewed for potential inclusion of patients with Ewing sarcoma, which could bring a new option closer, sooner.

One promising output of the programme’s translational work is Bensofib (also known as UEA522), a drug candidate designed to target cancer cells without harming healthy tissue. Preclinical work has shown significant reductions in tumour growth and spread without the need for conventional chemotherapy, and with no visible side effects in tested models.

But “promising” is not the same as “ready”. To move from preclinical results towards future clinical trials, every new medicine must pass a rigorous set of toxicity tests. These legally required stages establish safety and how a drug behaves inside the body, and they are expensive. This is the high-stakes stretch of the pathway where philanthropic support can be pivotal, because medical research charities do not tend to fund the toxicity phase.

The Sir William Coxen Trust Fund: backing the essential, higher-risk steps

The Sir William Coxen Trust Fund has been a longterm supporter of Dr Green’s work, backing both the research and the people who make it possible. That includes major investment in toxicity testing to help move Bensofib through the next stages of regulatory development, and support for Dr Emma Bull (BIO21), initially through her PhD and now as a postdoctoral researcher.

Alderman Bronek Masojada explains that the Trust historically gave smaller grants aligned to Sir William Coxen’s bequest, aiming specifically to help orthopaedic conditions in children. More recently, it shifted strategy to seek “moonshot” projects: high risk, but potentially transformational at scale. Thanks to the work of the Trust’s Medical Adviser, Nicholas Goddard, representatives were introduced to Dr Green’s research. “The project fitted our ambition,” says Alderman Masojada, “and so the decision was taken to support it.”

He also explains why they chose to fund early-stage testing. “The early stage of drug or compound testing is the most difficult to justify commercially,” he says. “As a charity we were more inclined to take a risk,” given the potential to address childhood bone cancers and fulfil the objectives of Sir William Coxen’s bequest. So far, one sign of progress is that toxicity tests to date suggest the compound could be suitable for use in people. “We now need to step up the toxicology tests,” he adds, “in anticipation that the model results can be replicated.”

He is also clear that people and continuity matter. “All progress depends on the hard work of a dedicated team of researchers,” he says. The Trust funded Dr Bull’s PhD and then her current postdoctoral role, so knowledge and momentum were not lost. Alderman Masojada’s message to other trusts and foundations is simple: it is worth focusing some resources on risky activities that might have a big impact, because charities can take “bets” that a commercial organisation cannot.

“Early-stage drug or compound testing is the most difficult to justify commercially. As a charity we were more inclined to take a risk.”

Alderman Bronek Masojada, The Sir William Coxen Trust Fund

Dr Emma Bull (BIO21), Donor-Funded Researcher, Paediatric Cancer

Dr Bull’s work focuses on how cancer spreads around the body (metastasis), a major driver of poor outcomes. She studies circulating tumour cells (CTCs), rare cells in the bloodstream that enable cancer to travel and form secondary tumours. Extracting usable genetic material from these cells is extremely difficult, but her work is opening up new possibilities for understanding, and ultimately interrupting, this process.

During her PhD, she identified a gene called MERT1 in circulating tumour cells from osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma and has since shown that reducing its expression can slow, and in some cases stop, the spread of cancer cells. This is helping build a clearer picture of how these cancers spread, and where future treatments might intervene.

“Philanthropy is the only reason that we have been able to find and investigate completely new RNA molecules that help childhood bone cancers to spread around the body.”

The Azaylia Foundation: investing in talent and the wider programme

Founded in memory of Azaylia Diamond Cain, The Azaylia Foundation supports children and families affected by cancer, while also investing in progress towards earlier diagnosis and better treatments. CEO Dominik Byrne says the Foundation aims to be a major supporter of developing, and improving access to, treatments for children with cancer in the UK.

Alongside The Coxen Trust Fund’s support for the translational pathway, the Azaylia Foundation is strengthening Dr Green’s programme through a funded PhD post, backing the specialist talent that keeps research moving forward over the long term. Dominik says the Foundation funds work with a clear “why”, a credible route to impact, and strong leadership behind it. He was also drawn to the wider programme around the PhD, and the way a funded researcher can contribute towards accelerating progress in childhood cancer research.

Now that the project is underway, Dominik says the Foundation is “extremely excited” to see the growth and development of Evgenia Kovalova, their funded PhD scholar, and the contribution she is making to the future of Dr Green’s research programme at UEA. Looking ahead, he describes success as developing PhDs into long-term career researchers and continuing to support the programme’s growth so progress can keep moving.

“We fund work with a clear ‘why’ and a clear route to impact.”

Dominik Byrne, CEO, The Azaylia Foundation

For PhD researcher Evgenia Kovalova, that support provides stability and the space to focus. Having moved from clinical oncology into research, she is driven by the questions she carried with her from the clinic: why similar cases can respond differently, and what is happening behind the scenes at a molecular level.

Her approach is careful and deliberate. “My key learning so far has been not to rush to conclusions,” she says. “Start with a precise question and the right approach, and only then interpret the biology, not the other way around.”

“The funding has let me focus on what I genuinely enjoy: to keep learning, think deeply, and hopefully come up with something useful.”

Evgenia Kovalova, Donor-Funded Researcher, Paediatric Cancer