Mark Abram is a husband and father. A family man and a friend to many.

Mark has recently been diagnosed with a terminal brain cancer which has devastated him and his family.

Mark's friends and work colleagues have sprung into action in an attempt to support him and his family through such a difficult time.

Despite his admirable modesty, Mark has managed to provide some insight of how his diagnosis has impacted upon him.

"It's difficult to describe the emotions I went through when my wife and I were told that I had terminal brain cancer. I hated it. It was horrible. There were so many frightening thoughts flooding my head, none of them positive!

The thought of not seeing my children grow and develop broke my heart. They mean the world to me and I consider myself extremely privileged to call them my children.

It should have just been any other normal day and it was only when Dr Gulliford asked what time my wife would be back that alarm bells started to ring as to there being a potential serious problem.

As soon as Mandy arrived we were taken into an office and was told without frills that my MRI scan was bad news and quite a large, aggressive tumour had been identified towards the right side of my brain that's invariably terminal.

I'm just about to start my final week of radio and chemotherapy and I'm really grateful that we have this treatment available in our country.

Although prognosis is still poor despite the standard treatment (surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy) I'm fighting every day for new treatment methods and nutrition that may help to shrink the tumour.

Unfortunately due to the location of the tumour it wasn't possible to remove it all, so fingers crossed it will lie dormant for plenty more years hopefully.

I've been totally overwhelmed by the generosity and caring nature of all my family and friends throughout this process, another reminder of how lucky I am."