The family of a five-year-old girl from Exeter, who "captured the hearts of the city" during her battle with a rare brain cancer, said they are "encouraged" by the early results of a research project being done in her memory. The Billie Bainbridge Research Strategy is a major three-year research programme under the leadership of Professor Richard Grundy at the Children's Brain Tumour Research Centre at the University of Nottingham. It is focusing on the causes and potential treatment of diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas, the rare tumour which caused Billie's tragic death in June 2012. Billie's grandad Pete Bainbridge said the family visited the project last week to listen to the progress made during the first year. He said: "We are very encouraged by the progress the research team have made, but of course there is a long way to go before any new treatments are developed. "It is really good to know that the fantastic efforts of so many people to raise money for the Billie Butterfly campaign are resulting in real progress towards beating this appalling disease." Following her devastating diagnosis in 2011, family and friends set up the Billie Butterfly Fund to fund extra treatment abroad after being told by medical staff in the UK there was nothing more that could be done here. In just a few months, £396,000 was raised – almost double the original target – and only a quarter was eventually spent on Billie's treatment. But the family have always maintained any money left over would go towards research into childhood brain tumours and transferred £267,000 to the research project. Billie lost her brave battle with brain cancer at the age of five in 2012. Mr Bainbridge added: "We went up there last week and were given a presentation by Dr Farhana Haque, the research fellow appointed to the project, had discussions with the research team headed by Professor Richard Grundy and toured the labs to see how the research is being carried out. "This gave us a much better understanding of the research and we were much encouraged by the progress being made. "The key progress so far has been the development of antibodies to enable the detection of the mutated histone proteins found in Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas (Billie's type of brain tumour). They have now succeeded in getting the antibodies to stick specifically to the mutated histones. "The next stage is to use the antibodies to work out the cellular processes that go wrong when the histones are mutated. They also plan to assess whether the antibodies have any potential as a new treatment." Billie's father Sam Bainbridge, who lives in St Leonard's with wife Terri and their other child Joe, said: "This project looks specifically at DIPG because that was Billie's tumour, but it is all a matter of building blocks. "What they find out will benefit all forms of it. It is about building a way to find the answers. "It is about getting closer to finding a cure and discovering treatments which can help. "At the moment there isn't any treatment for what Billie had. There is radiotherapy, which will only buy time. That is all it will do." The full annual report from Professor Richard Grundy can be viewed on our website.
