Announcement: Set sail on Pirate Day 2021

Let’s turn the tide on brain cancer this Pirate Day!

This May thousands of buccaneers across Australia will be hoisting the mainsail for The Kids’ Cancer Project’s Pirate Day 2021. Pirate Day is a swashbuckling day of dressing up like a pirate to raise money for children's brain cancer research.

With more kids in Australia dying of brain cancer than any other disease, now is it the time to make a difference. This Pirate Day, we want Australians to help us turn the tide on childhood brain cancer!

Pirate Day has raised more than $360,000 for brain cancer research since 2015. These funds are already helping researchers make waves in the lab.

Read more: Behind the science, Professor Joshua McCaroll

This year, there are even more scientists ready to get on board to work towards finding cures. By donning an eyepatch and brushing up on your yo-ho-hos, you can have fun raising money to help researchers improve outcomes for kids with cancer.

At The Kids’ Cancer Project, we’ll be setting sail on our Pirate Day on Friday 14 May. But pirate crews around Australia can choose any day in May, coinciding with May being Brain Cancer Awareness Month.

The study looks into immunotherapy’s ability to teach the body’s immune system to recognise and destroy brain cancer cells. Their research has the potential to lead to new clinical trials in the near future.

“This funding, and any additional research funding we can obtain, means that we can get our research achieved faster, and in turn we can advance these new treatments to the clinic more rapidly to help children with brain cancer,” Dr Endersby says. 

Read more: Turning the tide on kids' cancer

Apart from working on exciting new research, how will Dr Endersby and her research crew be getting involved in Pirate Day?

“Shiver me timbers, me and my fellow scallywags will definitely be increasing awareness by getting our pirate gear on, but at the same time we’ll get all hands-on deck in the lab,” she says.

To register a Pirate Day event or make a donation, visit pirateday.com.au.

The facts:

·       Brain tumours are the most common form of solid tumours among children.

·       Brain cancer kills more children in Australia than any other disease. 

·       As with other tumours in kids and adults, surgery is the primary treatment, usually followed by radiation treatment and/or chemotherapy.

·       Because a child’s brain is still developing, these treatments can result in more substantial and permanent side effects than they would for an adult.