In the mid 1980s my Mum Hazel was diagnosed with an Astrocytoma. In September 2019, Mum passed away, after a 30+ year battle with her brain tumour. This April would have been her seventieth birthday. I can‘t really put into words what Mum meant to us. She was inspirational, courageous, stoic and caring. Her love for her family shone through. Even as her illness progressed and her speech failed, Mum always had a smile. “Life is better when you‘re smiling.”

I started raising money for The Brain Tumour Charity a few years ago, running the Paris Marathon in 2018 as part of my fund raising. During this time I’ve had amazing support from family and friends - in particular friends from work have encouraged me to take part in different challenges and kept me smiling through hard times.The last year has been tough for everyone with the coronavirus pandemic and unfortunately we had to shelve our plans in June 2020 to do the National 3 Peaks challenge. Although we did complete a stairs challenge and thank all who donated. Not to be deterred but being mindful of covid restrictions, these same friends, have now kindly agreed to take on a new challenge with me, walking over 100km in 24hrs between my home in Ripon and Redcar, to raise as much money as we can in memory of Mum. It seemed fitting as Mum went to secretary college in Redcar when she left school and to mark her seventieth year. 

Your brain is the most extraordinary part of your body. It's responsible for your ability to move and to communicate. It controls your emotions and stores your memories. It's the part of you that makes you, who you are. Yet, 102,000 people In the UK, are currently living with a brain tumour and the impact can be devastating. Research into brain tumours is woefully underfunded. Survival rates are just 11% and treatments haven't changed in 40 years.

Please support us if you can, in memory of Hazel, so that in the next 40years change does happen for those diagnosed.