Theo Burrell, an expert on ceramics and glass for the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, has died at 39, four years after a glioblastoma diagnosis. A statement on her Instagram account said she died peacefully on Wednesday, surrounded by her family.
Burrell worked for Lyon & Turnbull auctioneers in Edinburgh and joined the programme in 2018. She came from East Lothian. Doctors diagnosed the tumour in June 2022, when she was 35, after five or six months of worsening symptoms. “I had absolutely no idea it was coming, it was a huge shock,” she said. She went to A&E at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, where she was told what she had.
Glioblastoma is a highly aggressive brain tumour that typically carries a life expectancy of 12 to 18 months. It is incurable, and treatment has not advanced in two decades. About 3,200 people in the UK are diagnosed each year, and around 160 of them live five years or more. Burrell had life-extending surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
The campaign
She pushed for more government money for research, faster diagnosis and wider access to clinical trials. Lyon & Turnbull said brain tumours kill more children and adults under 40 than any other cancer, yet just 1 percent of the national spend on cancer research has gone to them since records began in 2002.
In 2023 she ran a fundraising auction called Piece of Mind, which raised over £64,000 for The Brain Tumour Charity and drew donations from celebrities including Ben Whishaw, Joe Lycett and Dame Jacqueline Wilson. She promoted it on Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch. Later that year she became a patron of Brain Tumour Research. She appeared on BBC news programmes, delivered a petition to 10 Downing Street and spoke at the Scottish Parliament.
In March this year she met Health Secretary Wes Streeting and experts at the Scottish Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence in Glasgow, urging the government to push research into new treatments.
Tributes
Dan Knowles, chief executive of Brain Tumour Research, said the charity was “heartbroken”. “She was always very open about her prognosis and knew from the outset her cancer was terminal but she was absolutely determined to make a difference for others,” he said.
Burrell had spoken of “dark thoughts” and a fear that she “wouldn’t see my son’s second birthday”. In a recent Instagram post she wrote: “But I’m lucky enough to say I did! And no-one can take that away from me.” She married her husband Alex earlier this year.
Her family’s statement said she saw her son start school and her own wedding, events they had thought she would never see. “I think what she would want most of all is for other people to find hope in her story.”
