On the 10th of June myself and my boyfriend Luke will be doing a sky dive to raise money for brain tumour research, 11 months to the day that I lost my brother to this terrible disease. My brother Mike made me the proudest sister ever, he faced many hurdles in his life because of his brain tumour and every hurdle he faced he still laughed, smiled and carried on his with his day to day life, going to work, holidays, getting married and becoming a dad. He never complained or said why me and I really admire him for that. 

Brain tumour research needs on average £1millon proud per year to continue vital research. Brain tumours kill more children and people under the age of 40 more than any other cancer, yet it only receives 1% of government cancer funding into research, less than any other cancer!! Treatment for brain tumours also hasn’t advanced for many years, in the UK you are offered an operation if its in a location where it can be operated on, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. There are other treatment’s available abroad that aren’t offered in NHS and are proven to be effective and less than 20% of people diagnosed with brain tumours live longer than 5 years. 

A little bit about Mikes story, he was first diagnosed in October 2014 with a meningioma brain tumour where he had his first operation. They couldn’t remove the full tumour due to location so he had some radiotherapy to treat what was left. A scan at the beginning of 2018 showed some re growth of the tumour so he had a second operation in April 2018. Following his operation he had some chemotherapy. Everything was going well for Mike until the start of 2020 when the tumour started to grow. He was offered treatment called Avastin which wasn’t available on the NHS and had to be paid for privately, approx £3,500 every 3 weeks! The treatment was amazing, little to next to no side effects and kept the tumour stable so by the end of 2020 he could stop receiving the treatment!

In April 2021 the tumour grew again and this time Mike had intense radiotherapy everyday for 6 weeks. Scans that followed this showed shrinkage, something he had never had before! In march 2022 he received the best scan he had ever had, more shrinkage and dead cells! However in May he caught an infection, the infection had made its way inside his brain, and after many weeks trying to fight the infection in hospital with antibiotics, a scan showed that the tumour had grown at the same time and he passed away on the 10th July. He was 33 years old and he had such a zest for life and I miss him so much, we all do. 

A couple of reasons why I am going this skydive, I want to raise money to help other people diagnosed with brain tumours have access to better treatments and one day a cure. The second reason is that life is so short, I mentioned this sky dive to Mike whilst he was in hospital as I’ve always wanted to do one, he told me to go for it and that he was proud of me! I’m sure I will be quite nervous on the day but knowing he is proud of me and I am raising money to help other people will keep me smiling. 

Any donations will be greatly appreciated by myself, Luke and brain tumour research.