A woman from Capel Bangor, whose father died from a brain tumour, and Ceredigion MP Ben Lake, have been marking Brain Tumour Awareness Month, “to raise vital awareness of the lack of funding”.

Cerys Humphreys’ father, Wynn, died in March 2017 from a terminal brain tumour - a grade 4 glioblastoma.

Cerys has since become involved with the charity Brain Tumour Research and has joined others in marking Brain Tumour Awareness Month this March. People from across Ceredigion have been taking part in activities throughout March in order to raise vital awareness of the lack of funding and to influence UK governments and larger cancer charities to invest more nationally.

A petition, launched by Brain Tumour Research on 10 August 2020, calling for increased national investment into brain tumour research to £35 million a year, reached the 100,000 signatures needed to present it.

“Brain tumours still kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, yet despite promises of increased investment in research from the government and larger cancer charities we are still not seeing parity of funding with other cancers such as breast, prostate and leukaemia,” Cerys said.

“Everybody involved with increasing awareness of the petition, knew that for the Prime Minister to accept the petition, 100,000 signatures were needed before the end of February.

“On 25 February, with only three days to go, this was reached.

“It was a very emotional moment, to see that our goal had been reached – the Brain Tumour Research Charity could now present the petition to the Prime Minister for consideration and debate.”

Cerys attended a virtual Westminster event to mark Brain Tumour Awareness Month on 17 March.

The annual Wear a Hat Day, which aims to raise awareness for brain tumour research and raise vital funds, was also held.

Mr Lake said: “Each year, over 16,000 people across the UK are diagnosed with a brain tumour.

“Sadly, the condition is responsible for more deaths of children and adults under the age of 40 than any other form of cancer. Despite this, brain tumour research receives less than one per cent of UK cancer research spending.”