Dad hits midway level of operating problem in reminiscence of sweet sixteen son

A father whose teenage son died of mind most cancers is midway by way of operating six marathons in his reminiscence.

Frank James Lee, from Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, was 15 years previous when he died after being recognized with a glioblastoma (GBM).

Elevating cash for Mind Tumour Analysis, Mr Lee mentioned the problem had given him “one thing to concentrate on” after his son’s loss of life.

“Any time my thoughts begins going off and the unhappiness will get to me, I placed on my trainers, and it clears my head,” he mentioned.

Again in 2017, Frank skilled persistent headache and nausea which led docs to discover a high-grade tumour on his mind.

The invention got here after he collapsed at his house and he died two years later, in 2019.

Since his son’s loss of life, Mr Lee mentioned he wished to boost cash after realising “little funding goes into analysis into the illness”.

“It makes my blood boil,” he mentioned.

“As a household, we knew nothing about this illness till it utterly upended our lives.”

“I discover it so exhausting to speak about Little Frank, and a few years in the past I’m undecided I’d have been in a position to do it. However I do know I must to be able to forestall extra mother and father from dropping their sons like we did,” Mr Lee added.

Working alongside a bunch of buddies often called ‘Workforce Breed’, Mr Lee has to this point competed in marathons in London, Boston and Tokyo.

Mr Lee mentioned: “I couldn’t have made it to this point with out all of the Workforce Breed lads who’ve joined me in operating around the globe and remembering Little Frank, who was such an lively and sporty child.”

Greater than £27,000 has been raised to this point, an quantity he hopes to double as soon as he takes half within the second half of his problem, finishing marathons in Berlin in September, adopted by Chicago in October and New York in November.

Louise Aubrey, neighborhood improvement supervisor at Mind Tumour Analysis, who fund analysis at devoted centres within the UK, mentioned the charity have been “so grateful” to Mr Lee for the “unbelievable fundraising”.

“Sadly, there are such a lot of extra tales similar to Frank and his son. So many younger persons are affected by the illness, but simply 1% of the nationwide spend on most cancers analysis has been allotted to mind tumours since data started in 2002,” she added.

Based on the NHS, signs of a mind tumour range relying on the precise a part of the mind affected however the frequent signs embrace:

Some folks could not have signs to start with, or they could develop very slowly over time.