A MUM who is living with a brain tumour has helped open a new research centre.

Gemma Edgar, 29, was forced to give up her job as a paediatric nurse, at Colchester General Hospital, after she was diagnosed with an aggressive gliobastoma multiforme brain tumour in October last year.

She underwent surgery and chemotherapy to remove the bulk of the tumour, although surgeons could not remove it all.

Mrs Edgar, of Colchester, and her husband, Rob, were among patients, carers, scientists, clinicians and charities from across the country who were present for the opening of the new Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence, adjacent to Hammersmith Hospital in London.

She said: “When I was diagnosed I just couldn’t understand how this could happen.

“How can so many people have brain tumours yet so little be known?

“I was staggered to learn brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, yet receive so little funding.

“How can it be right that just 1 per cent of the national spend on cancer research is allocated to this devastating disease?

“I cannot sit by and do nothing.

This cannot continue.”

The new centre will be funded by donations from national charity Brain Tumour Research and Mr Edgar, a police officer, completed a tandem skydive with colleagues at Beccles Airfield, in Suffolk, earlier this year, to help raise £8,500.

He said his wife’s diagnosis was heartbreaking for him and the couple’s sons – threeyear- old Dylan and one-yearold Noah.

He added: “She is a kind, loving, amazing person who has devoted her life to helping others, having been a children’s nurse for ten years prior to her diagnosis.

“We are looking to raising as much money as possible to contribute to one day finding a cure for this woefully underfunded type of cancer.”

Chief executive of Brain Tumour Research Sue Farrington Smit, said: “We are extremely grateful to Gemma and Rob and to our many supporters whose hard work and dedication are helping us to fund the fight.

“This new centre brings a welcome and timely boost to long-term sustainable and continuous research into brain tumours.”