In memory of Tim Matley
Tim Matley, lead singer of The Overtones, passed away suddenly in April, leaving family, friends and fans devastated. Tim was one of our most enthusiastic supporters after receiving treatment for skin cancer at the hospital.
Everyone at The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and the consultants and nurses in the melanoma team who cared for Tim are deeply saddened by his death. Our hearts go out to his friends, his family and to his 'brothers' in The Overtones.
London based singer-songwriter Tim Matley - a member of the platinum album selling band, The Overtones – tragically died in early April 2018.
Tim was a keen supporter of The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and was planning to do a skydive for us in May 2018. He wrote about his experiences with cancer and his treatment at The Royal Marsden and shared them on his fundraising page.
In his own words...
In Summer 2016, I found a lump in my underarm, and in September that year, I was diagnosed with stage 3 malignant melanoma - a form of skin cancer. I had felt fine so couldn't quite believe the diagnosis.
The first step in my treatment was lymph node surgery under my arm. Of 24 nodes removed, melanoma was found in 23 and I was told there were also lumps in my neck. I had a scan a few weeks after surgery which confirmed the lumps were also melanoma and that I had two large tumours on my adrenal glands. At an already frightening time, I was then told that the cancer was now stage 4.
I did a lot of research and discovered that the most pioneering treatment was taking place at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London where they had undertaken the biggest trial of the immunotherapy drugs Ipilimumab and Nivolumab.
Throughout the whole course of my treatment, The Royal Marsden have, and continue to be amazing and I just want to do something to say a huge thank you…I can't express how grateful I am to Professor Gore and Dr Larkin at The Royal Marsden for their pioneering research into this form of treatment and the care I have received at the hospital has been second to none.
I would like to raise as much money as I can to help them continue their incredible research and help more people in the way they have helped me.
From Tim's family...
We are devastated by the loss of our Timmy and we can't quite imagine our lives without him. He was very proud to be supporting The Royal Marsden as he was so grateful for his treatment and to all the staff involved in his care. He was really looking forward to his skydive on the 3rd May and we were so proud of him for taking on such a brave challenge.
Although we are heartbroken, we are so thankful for all your messages of support and to all those that have donated, and continue to donate, to Timmy's justgiving page. We would like to thank all the consultants, doctors and nurses involved in Timmy's treatment and we hope that the money raised can be used to help more people like Timmy.
