Some of my colleagues and friends from Hartismere and I are aiming to complete the National Three Peaks Challenge in under 24 hours in order to raise money for The Brain Tumour Charity. We will attempt to climb Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon all within 24 hours. We will be starting with Ben Nevis in Scotland at roughly 4am on 23rd August and aim to have finished Snowdon by the same time on 24th August. We will be training hard for the challenge but this will be made slightly more difficult by the lack of mountains around here. 

Many of you will know that my wife (Briony) lost her mum, Helen to a brain tumour last October. Helen is the inspiration behind this challenge. She was a wonderful person and the most loving mum, mother-in-law and grandma to Jessie and Oscar. It’s so difficult still to believe that someone so seemingly well, fit and healthy could overnight become so poorly and be diagnosed with the most aggressive form of brain cancer, a glioblastoma. Helen lived for a year following her diagnosis. She was so brave and a real inspiration. She was able to meet her second grandchild, Oscar just a few days before she passed away which is really special.

Before Helen fell ill, I had not even heard of glioblastoma and was definitely not aware of the shocking statistics about brain tumours. 

•. Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of adults and children under the age of 40

• Over 12,000 people are diagnosed each year with a primary brain tumour, including 500 children and young people – that’s 33 people every day

• Over 5,300 people lose their lives to a brain tumour each year

• At least 88,000 children and adults are estimated to be living with a brain tumour in the UK currently

• Brain tumours reduce life expectancy by on average 27 years – the highest of any cancer

• Just 12% of adults survive for five years after diagnosis

• Brain tumours are the largest cause of preventable or treatable blindness in children

• Research offers the only real hope of dramatic improvements in the management and treatment of brain tumours. Over £700m is spent on cancer research in the UK every year, yet less than 3% is spent on brain tumours

It would be great to try and raise as much money as possible for the charity in memory of Helen and in order to help research into the management and treatment of brain tumours. Thank you so much for any donation you are able to give, it means a lot.