The trust was established in 1996 and commemorates Ben Walton and his year-long fight against oral cancer.
Ben was born at Kitleyknowe, near Carlops, and attended West Linton Primary School and Peebles High School. Ben attended Aberdeen University where he was studying Honours Psychology; in his final year, at the time of his death on 9 December 1995, he was 22 years old.
Too few people have heard of oral cancer. It is relatively rare in the general population (over 4,000 cases are diagnosed in the UK each year, approximately the same number as cervical cancer). Globally, it is sixth on the list of cancers that kill. However, it is on the increase amongst young men and women and, most importantly, five year survival rate overall is less than 50% because many cancers are advanced before they are diagnosed. This survival rate is lower than that for melanoma or breast cancer. Early detection is vital, and can lead to an improved survival rate.
Remember, most mouth conditions are not cancerous.
The combination of the first two factors considerably heightens the risk.
However, among younger patients in particular, these traditional causes do not always seem to apply.