Widow’s family runs for charity for husband who died at 49 with a rare brain tumour

BY TOBY PORTER
toby@slpmedia.co.uk

A man has run a 5K with his widowed sister to raise money for the Brain Tumour Research charity their family has supported since her husband died of a brain tumour.

Juliet Legg’s husband, Nigel Legg, died in 2012, just six weeks after being diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and being told he had 14 months to live.

He was 49 years old and had two sons, Mikey and Jamie.

Her brother, Ian Young, of Milton Road, Croydon, has been helping out with annual fundraisers for Brain Tumour Research since then.

Another family member, the late Maurice Young, a Team GB Age-Group Duathlete until the age of 84, also left £1,000 to the charity following his death last year at the age of 86.

Ian and Juliet ran the Lee Valley Velopark 5k on Saturday.

The pair took on the event at the cycling centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, while Mikey and Jamie, joined by family friend Kane Small, are preparing to run the Reading half-marathon on November 7.

Librarian Juliet said: “Nigel passed away just coming up to 10 years ago now and we’ve done an annual fundraiser ever since.

“We’ve got tiles on Walls of Hope in Portsmouth and Plymouth so are hoping to do a new one at another centre.

We’re just pushing to get the last of the £2,740 we need and are hoping we can put both Nigel’s and Maurice’s names on the wall as a memorial to them both.”

Juliet and Ian both have some running experience but are currently recovering from injuries so easing themselves back into fitness.

Meanwhile, for software developers Mikey and Kane, both age 26, and University of Portsmouth undergraduate Jamie, 21, running a half marathon is a big challenge.

Juliet, 54, said: “That’s a huge endeavour for them. They took up running a few years ago and did 5K and 10K and then thought ‘you know what, we could do a half marathon’, so they’ve been training for the Reading half-marathon for about a year, slowly upping their distances and their speed as well.”

She added: “We don’t want another family to go through what we have losing Nigel at the age of 49. We were shocked to find how little funding there is for brain tumours, especially as it affects children so greatly, so we wanted to try and help make a difference.”

Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer yet historically just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease.

Melanie Tiley, community development manager for Brain Tumour Research, said: “We’re extremely grateful for the continued support of Nigel’s family and were incredibly sad to learn of Maurice’s passing last year.

“Placing a new tile on our Wall of Hope would be a fitting tribute to them both, each tile representing a day of research their family has sponsored as we strive to find a cure for all types of brain tumours.”

Brain Tumour Research funds sustainable research at dedicated centres in the UK.

It also campaigns for the Government and the larger cancer charities to invest more in research into brain tumours in order to speed up new treatments for patients and, ultimately, to find a cure.

The charity is calling for a national annual spend of £35 million in order to improve survival rates and patient outcomes in line with other cancers such as breast cancer and leukaemia, and is also campaigning for greater repurposing of drugs.

To support Nigel’s family, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/for-nigel-and-maurice.

Pictured: Ian Young and Juliet Legg