Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

This time last year my older brother ran an ultra marathon for charity and two years ago, my younger brother cycled 12 miles for charity, so I guess it’s finally time I pulled my weight. I’ve decided to put away the kitkats and run a marathon. Here’s why:

In March 2016, mine and my family’s lives changed forever. I came home from school one day and found my brother perusing the fridge. “Dad’s in hospital”, he said. He sort of laughed, made a joke about lobotomy, and carried on finding ingredients for a sandwich. Later on, I found out my father had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and was in the ICU at a brain specialist hospital in London. The following week was filled with hospital visits, worrisome phone conversations and copious amounts of tears. The haemorrhage had been caused by a brain tumour restricting his blood flow. Ultimately, he was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, an aggressive tumour found predominantly in children. It had been manifesting for about a year, and had he not had the haemorrhage which alerted us to his cancer, who knows where we would be now.

The subsequent two years have gone something like this: a craniotomy to remove the majority of the cancer, a 6-week course of radiotherapy, more cancer, another craniotomy, encephalitis and finally, chemotherapy.

The future is unknown but thanks to the support of the NHS, our friends and family and a fair few bottles of red wine, my father is still fighting.

I will be running for The Brain Tumour Charity. This charity relentlessly works at the forefront of brain cancer research. I can’t stress how beneficial, and crucial, their work is to the progression of brain cancer treatment. For further information, their website can be found at: https://www.thebraintumourcharity.org

This is a cause which is important to both me and many others who have been affected by this condition. I am sharing my story to ask you to support my run by donating any spare money to this page; however great or small, you'll be helping to make a difference.