Brain tumour sufferer appeals for help in charity mission (From Enfield Independent)
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Brain tumour sufferer appeals for help in charity mission
7:50am Sunday 21st March 2010 in News By Hannah Crown
Brain tumour sufferer and activist Lisa Connell
A WOMAN with a life-threatening brain tumour is appealing for help raising funds for research at a glitzy celebrity ball this month.
Lisa Connell, 30, founder of celebrity dating website Rent a Date for charity, has organised the Inspiration Ball, on March 31, to raise funds for brain tumour research as part of brain tumour awareness month.
At £300, tickets to the ball, in the Crystal Ballroom at the Mayfair Hotel, don’t come cheap. Ms Connell, of New Southgate, said she was hoping for a greater response and efforts to promote the event had been thwarted after a deal to build a website fell through.
Ms Connell was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2006, aged 27, after she started experiencing double vision.
The tumour was then found to be growing at three per cent a year. Because of its location in her brain, Ms Connell was told it was inoperable. She was initially told she would never walk again.
Recently though, she was overjoyed to be told it had stopped growing.
No doctor has been able to tell her how long she will live, which could be months or years.
Ms Connell said has now made it her personal mission to raise £1m for brain tumour research before she dies.
She set up Rent a Date for Charity, is a website site which enables visitors to bid for dates with celebrities.
The nigh features a champagne reception, a five course meal by chef Nobu Berkeley, with a celebrity auction between courses, guest music stars and carriages to take guests home.
A Palm Beach Casino will be open until 6.00 am, while there will be a silent auction of signed lithographs and original etchings by Renoir, Dali, Picasso, Matisse and Chagall, provided by the Broad Gallery, as well as other top prizes.
The money raised will go to the Meg Jones Brain Cancer Charity and the Brains Trust.
For more information see www.inspirationball.co.uk
