About The Karen Ingram Foundation
Our Organisation
The Karen Ingram Foundation was established in 2008 and was set up in memory of Karen Jane Ingram,
a mother of two from Portsmouth who sadly passed away in July of that year after
a long and courageous battle with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, she was just 40.
Karen Jane Ingram
1968 - 2008
Our Mission
The aim of our Foundation is to raise awareness and improve survival rates in to the blood cancer Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.
We provide grants to medical researchers who undertake clinical cancer trials to better understand which treatments are most effective at beating this terrible disease.
About Karen
Karen's battle against Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma started in 2007 when she began to experience stomach pains.
Tragically she was initially misdiagnosed with a stomach ulcer, and so did not discover she had
the disease for a further two months.
She underwent a lifesaving operation when her bowel perforated on her return home from Queen Alexandra
Hospital in Portsmouth where she was being treated, after two gruelling five-day bouts of chemotherapy.
But she pulled through after surgeons removed two tumours the size of lemons from her bowel.
Karen restarted chemotherapy in February 2008 and was delighted when, during a break in treatment,
her family organised a surprise trip for her to Disneyland Paris to celebrate her 40th birthday.
Karen was really happy , she was so surprised and didn't have a clue about the trip. Although it was clear she was struggling a bit and got tired easily, she kept a brave face for her two young sons and definitely enjoyed herself and the family were hopeful that she was going to be all right.
But on her return scans showed the cancer had returned. Her bowel perforated a second time and the surgeons said there was nothing more they could do.
Karen died at The Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth in the early hours of Sunday 13th July 2008, she was 40 years old.