Prof Niall Tebbutt became the first AGITG Member to be awarded the ‘AGITG Fundraiser of the Year’ at the Annual Scientific Meeting in August 2019. Prof Tim Price, AGITG Chair, recognised Prof Tebbutt for his commitment to raising funds for GI cancer research for over four years.
Prof Tebbutt has led two teams on extraordinary fundraising challenges for the GI Cancer Institute in the past including climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (2015) and Mt Aconcagua, Argentina (2017). Next year, he will lead the third Gutsy Challenge, his most ambitious yet – scaling Mt Himlung Himal in the Himalayas.
Collectively, the expeditions led by Prof Tebbutt have raised over $280,000 for gastrointestinal cancer research.
When Niall was planning the Mt Aconcagua climb, he said, “I wanted it to be a genuine challenge. We knew at the beginning that the stats are that about one in four people who tackle it make the summit. We all knew we were doing something that was difficult.”
Ascending Mt Himlung Himal will be even more challenging as only a handful of teams have successfully scaled it since it was opened in 1992. This journey will also be the most extreme and adventurous Gutsy Challenge to have been attempted by an AGITG Member.
Earlier this year, Prof Tebbutt spoke about the importance of fundraising to support AGITG research along with AGITG Members, Dr Lorraine Chantrill and Dr Matthew Burge. Watch the video here:
Prof Tebbutt is highly motivated for leading such incredible fundraising initiatives as he sees the significant impact of clinical trials on patients and carers. Niall is currently the Study Chair of two trials: MODULATE, a phase II trial testing immunotherapy combination treatments for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, and LIBERATE, a study investigating whether blood tests known as ‘liquid biopsies’ could evaluate RAS mutation status in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. Prof Tebbutt also led the MAX study, a phase II/III study evaluating the role of Mitomycin C, Avastin and Xeloda in metastatic colorectal cancer.
Support Niall and the team in the Mt Himlung Himal climb here.