Raising awareness of brain tumours in the media is vital in helping us as we work towards increasing the national investment to help find a cure for the disease.

We are indebted to our supporters who work with us to help us to achieve this; sharing deeply personal information isn’t easy but we also know that loved ones can find this a positive way to remember someone and it is also a great contribution to helping us make a difference. Other families affected tell us they take comfort from reading about the experiences of others.

Among those our PR team has been working with recently is Alexandra Dolphin who lost her husband Stuart, aged 30. Her poignant story, in which she reveals she discovered she was carrying Stuart’s child only after his death, was published by The Sun on the first anniversary of his death.

Tragically, at her 12 week scan, Alexandra discovered she had lost the baby they had longed for. The couple had been going through IVF and had been for an embryo transfer just two days before Stuart died.

“I found out between Stuart passing and the funeral that I was pregnant,” she said. “It was very upsetting. I tried again later but it wasn’t successful.”

She added: “Stuart was a brilliant husband and he would have been an incredible father. He always used to say he couldn’t wait, and that he wanted four kids together – which I told him was pretty ambitious.

“He said he didn’t care what order they came in, but that he’d love a boy to play football with. He’d have loved being a dad. We’d have loved being a family.”

Despite her loss, Alexandra is committed to helping others and plans to take on the Yorkshire Three Peaks to raise money for Brain Tumour Research in Stuart’s memory.

Related reading:

• Stuart’s story
• Donate to Alexandra’s JustGiving page

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