Theo Burrell of Lyon & Turnbull.
In June 2022, aged 35 and a mother to one-year-old Jonah, she was diagnosed with a grade four brain tumour - known as a Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). After undergoing surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, her condition is currently stable.
Burrell - who joined the long-running BBC series in 2018 - has worked at Lyon & Turnbull since her teens. She spent summers working with the viewing staff before formally joining the firm in July 2011, taking to the rostrum for the first time in October 2012.
Her remit covers the Five Centuries, Design Since 1860 and the Scottish Works of Art sales.
“My real passion is 18th century glass,” she told ATG. “I still love going in to see things and help out whenever I can.
“It’s nice to do something normal from my previous life again.”
Burrell’s role at the BTR will involve campaign work, using her public profile to bring attention to the disease that in the UK kills more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer.
In June she held a charity auction with L&T titled Piece of Mind that raised £77,000 for The Brain Tumour Charity.
“We deliberately chose the method of fundraising given my career. It very much felt I was uniting my two worlds - as an antiques specialist and auctioneer and a brain tumour patient.”
She continues to raise money via a Just Giving page and recently backed the charity’s call for increased government funding into research. A petition to ring-fence funding and increase the national investment in brain tumour research to £35m a year will shortly be presented to Westminster.
“Brain tumour research is under-funded and under-resourced, and they have such a poor prognosis. Brain cancer seems to be a few steps ahead of us, it’s outsmarting us.”
Just Giving: bit.ly/theoburrell
Instagram: theo.burrell
