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.

​