The amount of money flowing into Jemima's Give A Little page kept climbing, even as she slipped into a coma. But Dun was more focused on working out how to fulfill Jemima's wish to donate her tumour to their lab within an unpredictable and tight timeline.
"It was really challenging," he said. "We couldn't travel there, and the techniques required to create a living model of her tumour were logistically challenging. Auckland was in a Stage 3 lockdown at the time.
"Things progressed quite rapidly for Jemima, and we were struggling to find the right people in New Zealand, because they just don't do this work."
With some renowned Alzheimer's researchers from the University of Auckland ruled out of helping due to the city's lockdown, some "magnificent" Kiwi pathologists - Dr Claire French and Dr Carol Solomon - stepped out of their comfort zones to extract Jemima's tumour in a little hospital in Wellington."We exchanged about 800 emails in three days," Dun said. "Time was tight. But the pathologists, morticians, and a wonderful molecular biologist all worked together to get the tumour tissue to Australia in a state that would mean we would be able to have a part of Jemima growing in our lab forever. And it worked. The last part was absolutely devastating for everyone involved. But the hope Jemima created by her selflessness, and her generosity, maturity, compassion... I don't think that an adult would have the capacity to do all of that while facing life's ultimate challenge."To have this gift from a beautiful 15-year-old girl has been emotional and really humbling, to be honest."
Dun said they had been able to extract the tissue from various parts of the tumour, which had spread."It provides us with the ability to characterise the tumour in different locations in the brain," he said.
"I think the specific contributions of the brain stem play a direct role in how aggressive the tumour is. So to have the matched tumour from different parts of the brain really provides us with the clues to unlock what the brain stem is providing to the tumour.
"If we know that, we can block some of those signals when we get a diagnosis, and maybe that means the only therapy we have - radiotherapy - may work better.
"Dun said they were already seeing, through brain tumour tissue donations like Jemima's, why researchers had been unable to develop treatments for DIPG in the past 60 years.
"The tumours growing in the lab grow completely differently when they are taken out of the brain stem," he said. "Everyone has been doing research on cells grown in a lab in a plastic dish. But being able to be provided with almost fresh tissue from a patient is unlocking the differences and the clues we just didn't know about before.
"It is a rare day that Dun does not get a phone call from a distressed parent somewhere in the world who is searching for answers or advice.
"Every day I talk to a family," he said. "There is the complete hopelessness associated with a diagnosis. There is absolutely no treatments. Not much time. So parents reach out for a friendly ear - an experienced ear - but also someone that has been through it and can unpack all the complexities and talk about what is happening globally.
"That's what I do."
Regards.
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