Josh passed away aged 29, four years after being diagnosed with a pilocytic astrocytoma.

Josh was competitive, adventurous and full of life. He loved wrestling, the band Green Day, Jimmy Carr and any inappropriate comedy. Josh was also an ardent football fan, supporting Chelsea and Port Vale where he would often be found helping out on the turnstiles. He also was very fit, into body building and working out almost every day at the gym and he loved theme parks – especially Alton Towers where he created many memories with me and his friends.

The first signs that anything was wrong came in 2015 when Josh, aged 25, started experiencing nausea when he was in the gym and really bad headaches after gym sessions. Later he started walking into things as well as vomiting. This also led to problems with balance and coordination so it looked like he was drunk, even though he didn’t drink.

Josh made repeated trips to the GP and was eventually referred to neurology, but not for 12 weeks. Finally, a scan was booked for a few days later which revealed a brain tumour.

It didn’t feel real. Josh was always so out there, living his life – he’d just bought a house, we’d not long been on a climb over the O2 Arena and had plans for holidays abroad, gigs and more theme park visits.

Finally Josh's craniotomy went ahead and the surgeons were successful in removing around two thirds of the tumour. It was on the brain stem so they couldn’t go any further without considerable risk to Josh’s mobility and speech or even mortality. We were told that the tumour was a grade 2 pilocytic astrocytoma.

Josh was really unwell after the operation and developed meningitis. A week afterwards, he was in critical care. It was very distressing because he was in so much pain. The damage done during the operation had also resulted in his face dropping on one side which had a big impact on Josh mentally. His image was suddenly completely different which was very tough for a young lad of 25. He didn’t like talking about it – it was too painful.

Josh slowly recovered and got back to more or less his normal positive self but in 2018, Josh had a scan which revealed that the tumour had grown significantly, despite no real symptoms.

Josh passed away on 14 March - his beloved pup Diggs lay on Josh on the bed. It was so sad – he knew his beloved master had gone.

“I miss my little brother terribly, but I am comforted he fitted such a lot into his short years of life. He’s still top of my phone’s speed dial and every day I see his name it’s a reminder to live life to the max, be bold, strong and beautiful in mind, body and spirit, just as Josh did.”

Kim, Founder of Fighting for A Cure.

Fighting For A Cure has been set up to help raise funds into brain tumour research and to raise awareness. Please do all you can to help with this. Whether you choose to hold a coffee morning, run a marathon, or ask your business to be a Charity of the Year for Brain Tumour Research, it all makes a big difference.