A student has run the length of the UK for a brain tumour charity after losing his father to one when he was a child.
Rafe Colman-Chadwick, 20, raised more than £10,000 for Brain Tumour Research by running 872 miles (1,403km) from John O’Groats to Land’s End.
Despite a knee injury early on and suffering with tonsilitis, he reached Land’s End in six weeks, ahead of his eight-week target.
He said: “If my challenge helps even one more family by raising awareness, funding more research and encouraging people to demand change, then every mile has been worth it.”
The University of York student set out running on 5 June to honour the memory of his father, Damian Colman, who died from glioblastoma in 2018. His son was 12 years old at the time.
“When I was a little kid, all the way through Dad’s diagnosis, even for a few years after he died, I didn’t talk about it once,” he said.
“I think it’s hard to talk about grief, but I think it’s harder not to talk about it and I think that until you realise that, that’s when you start going through the process of healing.”
According to Brain Tumour Research, brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, with only 1% of the national spend on cancer research allocated to brain tumours since records began in 2002.
The charity is campaigning to increase the national investment in research into brain tumours to £35m per year.
Finishing at midday on Saturday 18 July, Colman-Chadwick said he “picked up the pace going past the Lancashire area”.