Ex-England, Arsenal and Chelsea footballer Amy Carr dies aged 35 after battle with brain tumour
On the streets of Dublin in 2024, amy carr finished a marathon she had set herself to run for research and hope. She crossed that line having raised £28, 718 for Brain Tumour Research; months later, the organisation announced she had died aged 35 after a long battle with a brain tumour.
Who was Amy Carr?
Amy Carr was a goalkeeper who represented England 16 times at youth level up to the Under-19s and played for clubs including Chelsea, Arsenal and Reading. Her football career at youth international level and across those clubs was a defining part of her life before illness took hold.
Brain Tumour Research issued a statement that read: “We are deeply saddened to hear that Amy Carr has died following her battle with a brain tumour, aged 35. ” The organisation added: “Amy showed incredible strength and determination after being diagnosed with a high-grade brain tumour in 2015. “
How did amy carr’s illness unfold?
The first sign came in 2015 when she blacked out at the sight of a spider. An MRI then revealed a tumour described in her accounts as “the size of a golf ball. ” She underwent major surgery, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. At one stage after a craniotomy she was unable to walk or talk for eight days and required extensive physiotherapy to rebuild mobility and speech.
The diagnosis was identified as a grade four astrocytoma. For years she lived with treatment and check-ups and, for a time, believed she was in the clear. In 2024 an annual check-up was followed by new symptoms — blurred vision and slurred speech — and doctors found the tumour had regrown. Last summer she was told her illness was terminal and given a prognosis of six to nine months. In total, she battled the condition for 11 years.
What did Amy Carr do to raise funds and how are people responding?
In 2024 Amy Carr ran the Dublin Marathon to raise money for Brain Tumour Research, raising an extraordinary £28, 718 to help fund work into brain tumours. Her own words from earlier in her fight — “I knew I didn’t like spiders, but blacking out seemed like an extreme response. I’d never reacted that way to anything before” — became part of the public record of how the diagnosis first emerged.
Brain Tumour Research paid tribute to her efforts and to the awareness she raised: “Our thoughts are with Amy’s family, friends and everyone who loved her. We are so grateful for the awareness she raised and the difference she made. ” A fundraising page for brain tumour research remained open for donations, and plans were made to celebrate her life on March 23 in Hertfordshire.
The arc of Carr’s story — from the terraces and training grounds where she kept goal, to surgery wards, to the Dublin streets where she ran for research — frames a wider human reality about survival, treatment and the role of fundraising for medical research. Her ability to return to endurance sport after major surgery and months of rehabilitation underlined the physical and psychological labour involved in living with a high-grade brain tumour.
Her death at 35 closes a long chapter of personal determination and public campaigning. Those who knew her on the pitch and those who followed her fundraising efforts have been left to reconcile the private losses of family and friends with the public record of a campaigner who tried to turn her illness into advocacy for others facing similar challenges.
Back in Dublin, the memory of her final marathon finish holds a different light now: a marker of resilience and a prompt that research, fundraising and clinical work remain unfinished tasks for many battling brain tumours.
