'I'm running nine marathons after dad's brain tumour diagnosis'

A nine-year-old boy is running the equivalent of nine marathons in four months to raise money for charity following his father's brain tumour diagnosis.

Oliver, from Wombwell in Barnsley, is attempting to run 380km (236 miles), an average of 3.3km (2 miles) a day, between January and April and raise £10,000 for The Brain Tumour Charity.

The aspiring Olympic triathlete set himself the challenge after dad Tom was recently diagnosed with a 4cm meningioma tumour, which was discovered after he lost nearly all of his vision in one eye.

Oliver, who has already run more than 84km (52 miles) and raised more than £7,000, said he was grateful for all the support he had received so far.

Tom was diagnosed in August, aged 39, after experiencing fatigue, a lack of concentration and clumsiness.

"Some of the symptoms that I now recognise as having a brain tumour I didn't recognise to start with," he said.

"The thing that really kind of brought it home to me was I lost the sight in my left eye, it became really, really blurry."

According to the NHS, more than 12,000 people are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour in the UK each year, of which about half are cancerous.

Symptoms include headaches, seizures, persistently feeling sick, mental or behaviour changes, vision or speech problems and progressive weakness or paralysis on one side of the body.

Tom, a PE teacher, is now recuperating after undergoing a 12-hour operation to remove the tumour at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield in December.

He said surgeons believe they had successfully removed the entire tumour.

Oliver, who has been running since the age of four, "wanted to give back" after his family received support from The Brain Tumour Charity.

"My mummy and daddy have always taught me to look for the positive in the difficult times," said Oliver.

"I can't believe all the support I've had from everyone and there's people that have come out running with me more than once, so I'm just really grateful for that."

He said he had been inspired by running challenges by rugby legend Kevin Sinfield and BBC Radio 2's Sara Cox.

"I've done the equivalent of two marathons already," he added.

Tom said he was "so proud" of his son.

"The resilience and the determination he's showing in what's been a pretty horrific situation for us all is so inspiring for me and his mum," he said.

"We just can't thank him enough."

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