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Motor Smart will be making a contribution towards a local charity for each retail car we sell.

Christopher’s Smile was started in 2008 by Karen and Kevin Capel following the death of their son Christopher aged 5 from a brain tumour. The charity has concentrated on funding work to bring the latest targeted drugs into use for children. Since 2013 their focus has been on molecular diagnostics for paediatric oncology. Christopher’s Smile funded and championed the introduction of the first paediatric tumour tissue DNA sequencing test which is now available as part of NHS standard care in England.

Their current project is the validation and introduction of ‘liquid biopsies’ for children with brain tumours into the clinic and eventually into standard care. Liquid biopsies are samples of blood plasma or cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) from which circulating tumour cells are extracted and from which their DNA is sequenced. The test they are funding will provide clinicians vital information as to the biology of a child’s brain tumour from a blood plasma or CSF sample. The information will then be used to decide on the best possible available treatments. Christopher’s Smile are currently awaiting the outcome of the evaluation process by NHS England of a liquid biopsy test for non-Central Nervous System solid tumours. Should this evaluation be successful this test will then be made one of the standard tests available to children in England as part of the NHS Genomic Medicine Service. At present this technology is used in the adult clinical trial and child research settings and it is their objective to bring this exciting technology into front line use for children with solid tumours as quickly as possible.