Brain cancer research call from family

An Aberdeenshire family are preparing for an emotional walk to help fund research into a cure for the condition which killed their dad and husband.

Andrew Mackie was 44 when he died with a brain tumour in February 2003.

His wife Moira and daughters Laura and Sarah will walk from Dinnet, from where Andrew came, to Cambus o’May, where Moira grew up.

The family are joining a national Walk for Hope on September 25 to support Brain Tumour Research and plead for more cash to be spent on finding a cure.

Andrew, known as Mac, began having seizures in August 1999 and went to a GP, fearing he had epilepsy.

But with his eyesight deteriorating he had a scan which detected a growing mass.

A biopsy in early 2000 confirmed a brain tumour.

Daughter Sarah Mackie, 32, said: “He had radiotherapy for six weeks and that did help him for about a year but then he started to deteriorate again. He went for another scan, which revealed the tumour was growing.”

In early 2002 he had an operation but doctors decided it was too risky to remove the whole tumour.

After another year he deteriorated further and made the decision to have palliative chemotherapy.

Sarah added: “It was the last thing they could offer him, and my dad was like, ‘Well, I’m taking it. I’ll try anything at this precise moment.’

“He said, ‘I just want a little bit longer with my family,’ so he went for that for another six weeks.”

Mr Mackie spent his final weeks at home with his family.

They described his final days as “upsetting” but they are glad he was able to be at home.

Now they are calling for the government to fund more research into brain tumours; only 1% of the national spend on cancer research is in this area.

Sarah said: “I think it should be a bit more evenly spread. You shouldn’t just pick one cancer over another to give more money to. It’s not really fair.

“I am really hoping that the government sees that they need to try to divide that money up a bit better.

“Even if it was a bit more, even if brain tumours got 10% funding, that’s still a fair amount of money to help in doing the research.”

Brain Tumour Research funds UK research centres while campaigning for more investment.

FIGHTER: Andrew Mackie after an operation to reduce the size of his tumour.