Theo Burrell, the well-known Antiques Roadshow expert and cancer awareness advocate, has passed away at the age of 39.
Burrell’s family shared the sad news via Instagram on Saturday, July 11, in an emotional post. “It is with great sadness that we share that Theo passed away peacefully, surrounded by her family, on Wednesday afternoon. Neither she nor her medical team anticipated this would happen so quickly,” the statement read.
- Main information about Theo Burrell’s career
- Theo Burrell passed away at the age of 39, four years after being diagnosed with terminal glioblastoma.
- She celebrated important milestones like her wedding and her son’s first day of school, exceeding expectations despite incurable cancer.
- Burrell joined Antiques Roadshow in 2018 as a ceramics and glass specialist, also working at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh.
Family members added, stating that “she was an incredible person who fought hard for her family, friends and to raise awareness about this cruel disease.”
In June 2022, she was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive type of cancer. At the time, doctors gave him a life expectancy of 12 to 18 months, stating that the disease was incurable.
However, Theo Burrell managed to achieve several milestones he didn’t expect, including his son’s first day of school and his wedding to his husband, Alex, on March 28. In an Instagram post, she expressed the joy of “being husband and wife after all these years together.”
Also in March, Burrell participated in an institutional video for the Department of Health and Social Care, calling for more government investment in cancer research.
“I am running out of treatment options and will lose my life to this cancer,” Burrell declared at the time, displaying painful certainty. “There’s absolutely no doubt about that.”
She mentioned having undergone brain surgery and 17 chemotherapy sessions. Burrell added that “it may be too late for me, but I can certainly make peace with it if I know the situation will be better for future patients.” His dedication to paving the way for advances in treatment serves as a legacy to the community.
In the statement about Burrell’s death, her family also praised the cancer community, noting that she “brought so much comfort and strength in our darkest times.”
The family reiterated that Burrell’s greatest wish was for “other people to find hope in his story. Hope that statistics are not absolute and that one day they will be very different.”
Burrell served as an expert on Antiques Roadshow from 2018. She was a renowned ceramics and glass expert at auction house Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh since 2011.
After her diagnosis in 2023, she became a patron of Brain Tumor Research, an organization dedicated to brain tumor research.
Dan Knowles, Executive Director of the charity, expressed his grief: “We are heartbroken to have lost the phenomenal, determined and truly inspirational Theo Burrell to this devastating disease. She was always very open about her prognosis and knew from the beginning that her cancer was terminal, but she was absolutely determined to make a difference for others. She constantly inspired us with the immensity of her heart, and we will continue our mission, driven by everything she taught us.”
