A global map now plots more than 10,000 people named Kirsty, Kirstie, Kerstie and other assorted spellings, after an 11-year-old girl from Tunbridge Wells who is being treated for a brain tumour decided to turn her name into a fundraising and awareness campaign. The interactive map, developed by her father, the children’s author Mat Waugh, shows participants from Colombia and Malaysia to the Rothera research station in Antarctica. The station was also the site where Kirsty Brown, a marine biologist with the British Antarctic Survey, died in 2003 after being attacked by a leopard seal – a poignant coincidence that underscores the global reach of the name.
The global map of Kirstys
Kirsty Waugh, who turns 12 on Monday, first asked her immediate friends and neighbours who shared her name to join the project. When she ran out of local Kirstys, her father built the online map to take the search worldwide. “We thought: why don’t we ask people called Kirsty because they’re the best people, because it’s the best name,” she said. The map welcomes not only Kirsty and its common variants – Kirstie, Kerstie, Kurstie with a U – but also those who simply want to show solidarity. “We have a few Kirstens. There’s even one guy called Alan who has declared himself as a Kirsty to show his support. His name was Alan, spelled K-I-R-S-T-Y,” Mat added. The campaign explicitly invites non-Kirstys to plot their locations without any requirement to change their names.
A benign but inoperable tumour
Kirsty was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour in November 2024 after losing much of her vision over several weeks during her final year in primary school. The tumour – which she has named “Terry” – is large and located in a part of the brain that makes surgical removal impossible. Although benign, its size and position mean it could cause significant problems if it continues to grow. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy, which she describes as “really tough”. “I feel sick and tired and out of breath,” she said. “Obviously some children go through so much worse than I do and have such worse treatments.”
Her treatment has already proved challenging. An initial drug was ineffective, forcing a change to a second round of chemotherapy. According to medical reports, Kirsty’s chemotherapy regimen was originally planned for 70 weeks, but has since been extended. Her next course is expected to continue for approximately 80 weeks, with some estimates suggesting the total treatment could last up to 150 weeks.
Fundraising impact and the ‘glitch in the matrix’
Raising money for charity has become a welcome distraction for Kirsty. “By telling my story like this and by fundraising, I think it has made it easier to cope,” she said. “When you scroll through the JustGiving page, it’s kind of comical because the donations are all from Kirstys,” her father added. “It looks like a glitch in the matrix.” The campaign has so far raised more than £75,000, with donations coming almost exclusively from people named Kirsty. The money is directed to OSCAR’s Paediatric Brain Tumour Charity, established in memory of nine-year-old Oscar Hughes from York, who died of a brain tumour in 2014. The charity had previously sent sibling care packages to Kirsty’s older sisters.
This is not Kirsty’s first fundraising success. Earlier, she raised £120,000 for Children with Cancer UK through a “Crochet for Cancer” campaign, crocheting a bunting triangle for each week of her chemotherapy. Her efforts earned her a place as a finalist in the 2025 JustGiving Awards in the Rising Star category.
Mat Waugh stressed that the family feels compelled to fundraise because Kirsty’s condition is, for now, relatively manageable. “We feel like we’re in a unique position to be able to tell a story about a very, very serious diagnosis, but from a position of having a fair amount of energy and the ability to carry on with normal life as it stands at the moment,” he said. “If we’re not telling that story, then it’s left to people who are in much worse situations.” He also highlighted the stark underfunding of childhood cancer research: only 3p in every £100 of government funding for cancer research goes to children’s cancers, despite brain tumours being the leading cause of cancer death in children and those under 40 in the UK.
Notable supporters have joined the map, including badminton player Kirsty Gilmour (the first to sign up), television presenters Kirstie Allsopp, Kirsty Gallacher and Davina McCall – who herself underwent surgery for a brain tumour in 2024 – and radio presenter Jamie Theakston. Stacey Solomon visited Kirsty during her treatment. As Kirsty herself reflected on her name: “I’ve always loved being called Kirsty because it’s not the most common name. There are not as many of us as there were 50 years ago. We have found so many cool Kirstys. We’ve had a couple of pilot Kirstys, and nurses, surgeons. So many cool, interesting Kirstys.”