HeadSmart — the highly successful campaign pioneered by the University of Nottingam’s Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre to speed up diagnosis of childhood brain tumours — has been voted the UK’s favourite health project funded by the National Lottery.

HeadSmart is based on research into the most commonly-presented symptoms of childhood brain tumours, carried out by the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre and is a partnership between the Centre, the Brain Tumour Charity and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Since the campaign’s launch in 2011, the average diagnosis time for brain tumours in children has been cut from 14 weeks to under six weeks, saving lives and helping to minimise brain damage from treatment.

HeadSmart beat off competition from 1,300 entries nationally to win a £5,000 cash prize and will have its impactful work showcased in a special report on the BBC One Show on Wednesday 27 September 2017.

Professor David Walker from the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre said: “This award, voted for by the public, is testament to the huge impact that our work on the HeadSmart campaign has achieved nationally and internationally.

“We are eternally grateful to the Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG) and in particular the clinical champions who have tirelessly collected national data on times to diagnosis enabling us to measure the impact of HeadSmart.

“Parents and medical professionals are now much more aware of the signs and symptoms of brain tumours in children and young people and earlier treatment is making a real difference to outcomes of this the largest cancer killer of people under the age of 40.”

Hayley Epps, from The Brain Tumour Charity added: “This National Lottery award means so much to us as a charity, and the money will help us continue to drive down diagnosis time and save lives.”

The winners of the National Lottery Awards are decided by the public — 7345 people voted for HeadSmart to win Best Health project.