Corby MP calls for immediate action on brain tumour research and 'deeds not words' in the name of Max Hall

Mr Barron spoke about the desperate plight of Max Hall, 14, in a parliamentary debate on brain cancer last night (Monday, June 15).

He told the Petitions Committee that action was needed to families like the Halls, from Corby, who say Max has been given ‘no new options’ for treatment for his brain tumour.

Mr Barron said in the debate: “I will not stop until I get Jackie answers, and get policies changed for young people like Max.

“Mandatory MRIs for long sufferers of headaches would be a good start, but after 12 years of warm words and broken promises, the motto of my constituency is Deeds Not Words, and in the name of Max, in the name of Jackie and his family and for the sake of all the people that are suffering, now is the time for this government to be the one that finally delivers.”

His intervention came after Jackie Hall, mum to Max, wrote a moving open letter about the difficulties she’s had with accessing realistic treatment plans for her boy.

Jackie has been campaigning since her son was given his devastating inoperable, high grade glioma diagnosis at the end of last year.

Treatment options for tumours like Max’s in this country are incredibly limited, and are life-prolonging rather than curative. Jackie and her family began fundraising to try to raise hundreds of thousands so Max could take part in trials abroad.

While coping with this, Jackie has been trying to raise awareness of the issues facing families such as hers, and has joined Brain Tumour Research in trying to publicise their plight. She wrote an open letter to members of parliament to tell her story, and to ask why brain tumour treatment in this country is so limited, and has progressed so little in recent years.

Speaking on Max’s Facebook page, she said: “Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak with Lee alongside Brain Tumour Research. I spoke not only as an advocate, but as a devastated mum fighting for her son. I shared my fears, my heartbreak, my frustrations, and the reality of what families like ours are facing every single day.

"..they have promised to help share Max’s story and raise awareness of the desperate need for change.

“Will it change Max’s diagnosis? Sadly, no.

“But if his story can help shine a light on the devastating reality of brain tumours, if it can help drive investment into research, improve access to treatments and trials, and offer hope to families who face this in the future, then that means everything to us.

“No family should be told there is no cure and then be left to search the world for answers on their own.”

Here’s Jackie’s moving letter to MPs in full

Dear Members of Parliament,

My name is Jackie, and I am writing to you as the mum of a 14-year-old boy named Max.

Max should be worrying about school, football, friends, and what he wants to be when he grows up. Instead, our family is living with the reality that he has a high-grade brain tumour and that there is no cure available to him.

As parents, we are forced to ask a question that nobody in power seems willing to answer:

Why?

Why, in 2026, are children still being diagnosed with brain tumours and then effectively told that there are no new treatment options available to save them?

Why has brain tumour research remained so underfunded for so long when brain tumours kill more children and adults under 40 than any other cancer?

Why are families like ours left desperately searching the internet, contacting researchers across the world, joining support groups, reading medical papers late into the night, and trying to find clinical trials ourselves?

Why is that burden falling on parents whose only focus should be loving and caring for their sick child?

The reality is that while our son fights for his life, we spend countless hours researching treatments outside the UK because there are so few options available here. We are not scientists. We are not oncologists. We are simply parents trying to save our child.

We have discovered that many of the treatments currently offered to children with aggressive brain tumours have changed very little over decades. While incredible advances have been made in other cancers, children like Max are still being handed treatment plans that often offer limited hope.

How can this be acceptable?

What makes this even harder is knowing that before Max’s diagnosis, he suffered headaches for around a year. Looking back now, we ask ourselves questions every day. Could more have been done? Should an MRI have been offered sooner? Could earlier intervention have changed anything?

Those questions may never leave us.

Now we face a future filled with uncertainty, while watching our son endure treatments that leave him exhausted, unwell, and unable to live the childhood he deserves.

Max is funny. He is kind. He is intelligent. He is brave beyond words.

He is not a statistic.

He is a child.

A child who deserves the same urgency, investment, innovation, and hope that would be demanded for any child standing in front of you today.

Every day we are told about future promises, future plans, future commitments, future investment. Yet families living this nightmare do not have the luxury of time.

Children with aggressive brain tumours cannot wait years for discussions, consultations, reports, and strategies.

They need action now.

We need meaningful investment in brain tumour research.

We need greater access to clinical trials.

We need faster pathways for innovative treatments.

We need better awareness and earlier diagnosis.

Most of all, we need answers.

Because right now, from where I sit as Max’s mum, it feels as though children with brain tumours have been left behind.

My son deserves more than sympathy.

He deserves a future.

So I ask you, not as politicians, but as fellow human beings:

If this were your child, would you be satisfied with the options available?

Would you accept decades without meaningful progress?

Would you accept being told there is no cure and then being left to search the world for hope yourself?

Because that is the reality families like ours are living every single day.

Please do not let another generation of children face the same future.

Please make brain tumour research, treatment, and access to clinical trials a national priority.

Children like Max are counting on it.

Yours sincerely,

Jackie Hall