Theo Burrell, the ceramics and glass specialist from Antiques Roadshow, has died at 39, four years after she was diagnosed with glioblastoma. Her family said she died peacefully on Wednesday afternoon, surrounded by them. “Neither she nor her medical team foresaw this happening quite so quickly,” they wrote.
The diagnosis came in June 2022, when she was 35. Glioblastoma is a highly aggressive brain tumour, and it typically carries a life expectancy of 12 to 18 months. Burrell had spent five or six months with worsening symptoms before anyone named it. “Headaches, sickness, problems with my vision, very, very pressurised pains in my head, migraines – the list went on,” she said. The answer came only after she went to A&E at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. “I had absolutely no idea it was coming, it was a huge shock.”
She had life-extending surgery, then radiotherapy and chemotherapy. She also outlived the odds. A statement on her Instagram account said she saw her son’s first day at school and her wedding, events “that a little over four years ago we thought she’d never see.” She married her husband Alex earlier this year. Burrell had spoken before of “dark thoughts” and a fear that she “wouldn’t see my son’s second birthday.” In a recent post she wrote: “But I’m lucky enough to say I did! And no-one can take that away from me.”
From the auction room to the screen
Burrell, who came from East Lothian, joined Lyon & Turnbull auctioneers in Edinburgh as a ceramics and glass expert in 2011. In 2018 she joined the BBC programme as one of the specialists who appraise objects that members of the public bring in.
The campaign
After her diagnosis, her public work turned to the disease itself. About 3,200 people a year are diagnosed with glioblastoma in the UK. Around 160 of them live five years or more, and the BBC notes there has been no advance in treatment for two decades.
Burrell pushed for government funding, faster diagnosis and more clinical trials. In 2023 she became a patron of Brain Tumour Research, and she played a central part in launching the Scottish Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence. The centre brings together the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow, Brain Tumour Research and the Beatson Cancer Charity, with the aim of moving new glioblastoma treatments toward trials.
In March 2026 she toured the centre with Wes Streeting, then Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Days later she was at Holyrood for the launch of the charity’s Manifesto for Scotland. That month she also appeared in a Department of Health and Social Care video. “Things may be too late for me, but I definitely can make peace with that if I know that the situation’s gonna be better for future patients,” she said.
Dan Knowles, chief executive of Brain Tumour Research, said the charity was “heartbroken”. Burrell “knew from the outset her cancer was terminal but she was absolutely determined to make a difference for others,” he said.
Her Instagram statement said what she would want most is for other people to find hope in her story. She is survived by Alex, their young son, her parents Ian and Marion, and her brother Tom.
Sources
- Antiques Roadshow expert Theo Burrell dies aged 39
- Antiques Roadshow Expert Theo Burrell Dies at 39 After Years of Cancer Battle
- Theo Burrell
