Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony Charity and Queen Mary University of London are pleased to announce a new PhD studentship to investigate how to prevent chemotherapy resistance from building up in osteosarcoma patients. Georgina Wherry has been selected to lead this exciting new research project.

The project will be supervised by Dr Stefaan Verbruggen at Queen Mary University of London, in collaboration with Dr Lucia Cottone, Bone Cancer Research Trust (BCRT) Early Career Fellow at the UCL Cancer Institute, and Dr Fiona Freeman at University College Dublin.

Dr Lucia Cottone, Georgina Wherry & Dr Stefaan Verbruggen 

Osteosarcoma is a rare cancer of bone tissue that primarily affects children and young adults. The disease is so rare that clinical trials for new treatments are difficult to carry out, and the most fatal challenge for patients occurs when the cancer becomes resistant to chemotherapy. Long term survival prospects are depressingly poor and innovative treatments are desperately needed.

Georgina's project will use the latest organ-on-a-chip technology to develop new drug testing platforms to accelerate the search for new treatments and reduce the side-effects experienced by patients.

Georgina is currently employed at UCL on a BCRT-funded osteosarcoma project, having previously worked as a Scientist for Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Trust. She studied Biomedical Science and Immunology at Kings College London and Birmingham University.

Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony Charity was founded by inspirational horse rider, Hannah Francis. Hannah was diagnosed with osteosarcoma when just 17 years old and she established her charity in March 2016 to fund research into bone cancers and to grant equestrian-related experiences to seriously ill people and their families (Willberry’s Wishes). She named her charity after a soft toy called Willberry The Wonder Pony and used Willberry’s voice to tell her compelling and moving story on Instagram. Hannah tragically passed away in August 2016 but her memory and legacy lives on through her charity which is funding a number of research projects into osteosarcoma and granting many Willberry’s Wishes.

Hannah competing on her amazing mare, 'Mavis'

Georgina Wherry said,

“I’m thrilled to have been offered this PhD studentship generously funded by Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony Charity. I’m looking forward to building on my current research by developing new, patient-near models of osteosarcoma to be used in the lab to study reasons why some patients don’t respond well to chemotherapy. I’m excited to learn from my diverse supervisory team based between Queen Mary, UCL and University College Dublin, combining expertise in osteosarcoma biology and tissue engineering, and hope to contribute novel insights and progress research into osteosarcoma.”

Dr Stefaan Verbruggen comments,

“Georgina's PhD project brings together experts in cancer biology and bioengineering and is an exciting opportunity to make major advances in treating this disease. Bone cancer is a devastating disease for young patients, and this work will hopefully have a real impact on their lives.”

Rachel Francis, Hannah’s mother, added,

“We’re delighted to be continuing Hannah’s mission to improve outcomes for young    people suffering from this hideous disease. The options for Hannah’s treatment were extremely limited and offered little hope, but being Hannah she was determined to ensure the future for others was brighter. This latest project follows a number of others already funded by her charity and more will follow thanks to the incredible support from so many.”

Please take a few moments to look at our projects to date.

Thank you for your continued support and generosity.

   CURRENT PROJECTS

         COMPLETED PROJECTS

Let's keep #kickingcancersbutt

For an Inspirational Young Eventer

The Hannah Francis Award was set up in 2016 to recognise and honour the inspirational person that Hannah was. Hannah's courage in personal adversity astounds us all, she was led by her dreams not her fears.  

In 2015, Hannah Francis was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at the age of 17. Osteosarcoma is a rare form of bone cancer which typically affects children and young adults. Her diagnosis was terminal. Despite this horrific news, Hannah fought her illness with extraordinary courage and dignity, enduring months of appalling side effects from her treatment, as well as constant pain. Hannah an accomplished and talented horse rider who was destined for international recognition. Horses were Hannah’s life and she wanted to continue to ride and fulfil her bucket list. She wrote to many in the equestrian world who she visited and quite often got to ride their elite rides. Despite being in constant, excruciating pain and no longer able to walk, Hannah continued riding until the very end, even being invited to ride in Great Britain colours which was the proudest of moments.  

Hannah was given a soft toy horse called Willberry The Wonder Pony shortly after her diagnosis. Hannah started to tell her arduous and deeply moving story through social media, using Willberry as her voice. Many began following her Instagram and Facebook pages and soon tens of thousands of people became aware of Hannah’s journey, from diagnosis through to the archaic and hopeless treatment regime she was forced to endure.  Her memory and selflessness continues with the positive legacy she set up, Hannah's Willberry Wonder Pony Charity, which funds research into bone caner, particularly osteosarcoma and 'Willberry's Wishes', granting equine related wishes to seriously ill people.

Emma had been following Hannah’s journey on social media when an eventing friend contacted her to ask if she could think of anyone who would be able to set up an award for Hannah as she was so inspiring and doing so much for others and raising awareness. Emma couldn't think of anyone to approach to set up an award so decided to do it herself. She contacted an amazing local artist Amy Goodman, whose work she had seen displayed at Wellington Horse Trials. Amy had also been following Hannah’s journey and very kindly gave her services free of charge to create the most beautiful bronze of Hannah and her horse 'Mavis' jumping over a fence. Once Amy had created what was going to be the bronze out of clay it had to be cast, which required funding, Emma approached 10 companies who were keen to support the award and covered the cost of the bronze. Once finished, the bronze travelled to different events so that it could be seen by fellow eventers and supporters. 

Devastatingly Hannah never got to see the finished bronze. Amy met her with a model of it to discuss exactly how she would like it be finished just a few days before Hannah passed away.

When the competition was first opened unsurprisingly a huge number of entries were for Hannah and it was awarded to her posthumously. 

2017 HANNAH LOUISE FRANCIS

2018 EMILY MUSTOW

2019 CLAIRE DREY-BROWN

2022 FIONA HOWARD

2023 FINLAY SCOTT

2024 HOLLY DENEGRI

2025 GRACE SMITH (Binky)

Thank you for all your applications for The Hannah Francis Award.  Willberry has been very moved by the applicants this year.

We wanted to provide a quick update on progress within Hannah’s Charity.

#inspiredByHannah

Our levels of activity with both our core activities, namely granting Willberry’s Wishes and funding scientific research, have increased over the past couple of years, with over 95 Wishes now granted and the number of projects funded by us shortly reaching double figures.  This is all really positive news, but it continues to take a huge effort from all our volunteers and  our Trustees.

With this in mind, we want to share some really positive news.  Hannah’s chose the Trustees she wanted to lead her charity and these all remain today, including Hannah’s parents (Rachel and James) and her grandma (June), together with Ian Peters and Miles Toulson-Clarke.  However, the increased activity referenced above means that we now feel is the time to broaden our Trustee group, not simply to create more resource but specifically to add critical skills we feel the Charity would benefit from.  We’re pleased to confirm the following Trustee appointments:

Dr Alice Goring  Alice was a close friend of Hannah and also helped her find her miniature Shetland, Doris!  Alice is a senior molecular scientist and completed her PhD at Southampton University.  Whilst studying there, she introduced us to her supervisor, Dr laire Clarkin, who has been the Chair of our Scientific Panel for the past few years.  In her capacity as Trustee, Alice will provide vital knowledge of the scientific community and will help guide us with our research activities.

Matt Clark  Matt is Operations Director of Old Mill, an accountancy and financial advisory practice.  Matt is also a survivor of osteosarcoma, which he was diagnosed with at 18 years of age, and told us about his remarkable journey of recovery when we first met him.  Matt then set himself the hugely onerous task of cycling over 1,000 miles to all the major eventing venues with his Travelling Willberrys, raising not just a remarkable amount of money for the Charity (over £14,000) but also increasing awareness of this hideous disease.  Matt will contribute not only his business experience to the Charity but, crucially, a patient perspective to add to all of Hannah’s extraordinarily powerful testimony that drives us each and every day.

In addition to these Trustee appointments, we’re overjoyed to let you know that Rachel, Hannah's mum, is now planning to dedicate her time to the running of the Charity and is assuming the role of General Manager.  Rachel is the heartbeat of the Charity, co-ordinating all aspects of what we do in Hannah’s memory and will now be able to dedicate even more energy to driving us all forwards!  We simply can’t think of a worthier person to do this and know that Hannah will be smiling.

Thank you for your continued support, we are so grateful.  We feel extremely proud of Hannah's charity and know that she would be thrilled that we continue to help so many people and and continuing her legacy in #kickingcancersbutt

Best wishes from us all x

Now everybody knows that Willberry is the original party animal, and always top of the invitation list because of the way he can flash his hooves!  So can you imagine how excited he was when a new Wish application came in for a pony party.   This special pony party was for Ellie, she has osteosarcoma, the same cancer as Hannah had.  Now Willberry had to put his thinking cap on as this one was a bit special.... 10 year old Ellie wanted to have the party at her school so that all of her classmates could be there too – a grand total of 38 children!!!

Well, this was a fantastic challenge, and whilst Willberry knew his fairies have worked a few miracles in the past, he decided that a chat with the staff at St Martin’s CE Primary School would help the wish run smoothly as it would be all hooves on deck!  Our plan was in place, and we couldn’t wait to meet Ellie and her little brother Ted.

Willberry travelled down to Liskeard in Cornwall with lots on board!  His fellow Willberries in jump form, props for our unmounted games, party bags, freshly baked Willberry biscuits and some yummy snacks – and an extra surprise for Ellie of a very special cake for her and her family....  The journey down was a bit foggy and we hoped it wouldn’t rain, but thankfully although it was a bit misty the afternoon stayed dry.  Willberry was so excited when they drove over the Tamar Bridge crossing from Devon to Cornwall! 

When we arrived at the school had done Ellie proud, with bunting all around the playground and her name in big letters everywhere – what a special girl she is 😊

The stars of the show arrived at the same time as Willberry, four adorable ponies from the absolutely fantastic Little Margate Equestrian Centre in Bodmin, owned and run by the wonderful Rachel.   The ponies came out and looked at everything going on around them as if it was a perfectly normal occurrence to be in the middle of a school playground! Well the children were all so excited at seeing them, but obviously they couldn’t all ride at the same time so our plan was to divide them into four groups and rotate between four different activities..... there was obviously pony riding, then face painting with pin the tail on the donkey; another area where Willberry had brought lots of freshly baked Willberry biscuits for the children to ice and decorate and finally some gymkhana games on hobby horses!!  

                   

Ellie’s teacher Miss Nile was amazing, coordinating each group with impressive efficiency so that all the children managed to have fun in every single sector – what a feat!  Many children had beautiful unicorns painted on their faces, the biscuit decorating was great fun and the hobby horse gymkhana was hilarious and hugely popular.  What a lovely group of children, all helping one another.  We gave out little prizes for the winning teams of the gymkhana games, if one team had won again, they passed on their prize to the team that hadn't won, this all came from the children.  

   

The ponies were the stars of the day, and even though Ellie was in a wheelchair she was determined to get on board, and the huge smile on her face when she rode around on the sweetest pony Meg was just the best moment of the afternoon.   Every one of us who has ridden or been close to a horse knows how special this connection is, and how they make us feel is one of the most magical experiences in the world.  Many of the children who had not ridden or been with ponies before made immediate connections with them, which was extra special too.  Perhaps one or two may even become visitors to Little Margate themselves 😊 

   

Finally,   the children were gathered together and went inside for a yummy tea party in the classroom – Willberry had never seen so much popcorn and chocolate fingers, ohhh and cake!!  Miss Nile organized the children to collect their goody bags just before they said goodbye.

There was just one last treat for Ellie from Willberry – an AMAZING cake made by the incredibly talented Niki Lowe Cake Design in Liskeard with guess who on the top..... yep you guessed it..... Willberry!!

This has been the most wonderful and humbling wish to create for Ellie, she is the most incredible young girl with the heart of a lion, and we have been so happy to be able to do this for her at such a tough time.

Our thanks are multiple.... to Miss Nile and all the staff at St Martin’s CE Primary School – you were incredible!  To Niki Lowe – nothing was too much trouble, you were very generous and supportive of our charity, and you made the most beautiful cake that made a little girl very happy..

And finally our huge and heartfelt thanks and gratitude go to the kindness and generosity of Rachel,  Mandy, Jess, Jezzie, Dolcie and Lola from Little Margate Equestrian.  Your unequivocal and immediate support at our request has touched us greatly, and we cannot thank you enough for your time and commitment to make this a most special wish for us all.

                            

And finally to Ellie.... dream big, fight hard and never give up