In March 2017 my lovely grandfather passed away after battling a glioblastoma multiforme (a particularly aggressive form of cancerous brain tumour) for just over a year.

A few months later, my wonderful cousin Joshua was diagnosed with a diffuse midline glioma (DMG) at the age of 15 in 2017. After undergoing surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, my Aunt found a clinical trial in NYC. After he was accepted onto the clinical trial, my aunt and Josh travelled between New York and London for 18 months. When COVID forced us to go into lockdown, Josh was unable to continue with the trial, and shortly after made the difficult decision to stop all treatment. He passed away in February 2021, at the age of 18.

Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer... yet historically just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease.

Josh was sporty, creative, one hell of a singer/actor and had such a love of life. As children, the cousins would put on performances (sometimes plays scripted by us, or X Factor style competitions) for the parents on handmade “stages” made out of random bits of stone we’d found on our Grandparent’s driveway - Josh was always the star.

He wanted to be a human rights lawyer, and to raise money and awareness for brain tumours through Brain Tumour Research. As a family, we are trying to fulfil Josh’s wishes and raise money and awareness, and help fund the fight to bring about better outcomes for patients and ultimately a cure for the devastating disease.

So on April 27th I will be attempting to run the marathon in 4 hours to hopefully raise awareness and help to improve outcomes for brain tumour patients and ultimately find a cure.