The daughter of a Horrabridge man who, along with his brother, both passed away from an identical brain tumour within days of one another, is participating in a fundraising challenge for Brain Tumour Research.

Geoff Pollard, from Horrabridge started experiencing black outs in April 2021, months after he was given the all-clear following treatment for prostate cancer. A subsequent scan at Derriford Hospital confirmed the father-of-two had a brain tumour.

Only weeks later, his brother Pete, also from Horrabridge but living in France at the time, was diagnosed too. The charity Brain Tumour Research has said the chance of two members of the same family being diagnosed with the same type of brain tumour, with no hereditary factors, was one in a million.

Geoff’s daughter Stacey is taking part in the Brain Tumour Research’s 100 squats or star jumps a day in November fundraising challenge to help find a cure for the disease. She said: ‘Anything I can do to prevent another family from going through the same thing is completely worth it. We were told without treatment my Dad would have three months. We couldn’t believe it when my uncle told us he had the same tumour. We were concerned the tumour could be genetic but the healthcare team concluded it was a coincidence.’

Geoff underwent an operation to remove the mass, but chemotherapy proved ineffective due to its aggressive nature. He went into hospital in December 2021 but sadly never made it home and he died on January 14 this year, aged 64, followed by Pete four days later in a hospital close to his then home in France (aged 69).

Stacey said: ‘This disease is horrendous and seeing what my Dad and uncle went through shows how the same type of tumour can impact people differently. We need to understand all types of tumours to stop this from happening which is why I’m doing this challenge.’

Stacey’s fundraising link can be found at: shorturl.at/cmvY1