Marlow dad's 200-mile brain cancer research Paris bike challenge

Rob Seaward, with his wife Shelley and their three children, went from being a healthy 37-year-old to a having a terminal cancer diagnosis

A father-of-three has completed a 200-mile (320km) bike ride to Paris to offer hope to people like him who are undergoing cancer treatment.

Robert Seaward, 37, was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and has since had 96% of his tumour removed.

The dad from Marlow, Buckinghamshire, said it was "an incredibly difficult trip" but messages from people with cancer "makes all the pain worthwhile".

His cycle challenge was to raise funds for brain cancer research.

After successful surgery, Mr Seaward had about a month's-worth of radiotherapy and is now having chemotherapy

"I wanted to show other people that chemotherapy is not something you have to be scared of," said Mr Seaward.

"I'm on chemotherapy - literally on Thursday night, I took my chemotherapy pills after riding 100 miles in a day.

"I'm just trying to give people hope."

• Footballer in fundraising bid after friend's death

• Make-up artist's eyebrow tattoos for chemo patients

• Woman with rare condition given clinical trial hope

Mr Seaward, who was born in South Africa, said the "spontaneous" idea for the bike ride came as he was watching South Africa compete against England in the Rugby World Cup match.

It made him reflect on how his own experience of the brain cancer oligodendroglioma and he wondered how he could help others with cancer, while thinking "how lucky" he was to have had successful surgery.

Mr Seaward hopes his cycle challenge will offer other cancer patients hope as well as raise funds for brain cancer research

He used to run his own electrical contracting business until he had a seizure on 30 January, when he was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford to be told he had a brain tumour.

"I went overnight from being a fit and healthy 37-year-old dad to being terminally ill and told I've got five to 10 years left to live," he said.

His youngest child was just five at the time.

Mr Seward underwent nine hours of surgery in March which aimed to remove 70% of the tumour but instead removed 96%.

This was followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy, with three more rounds of the latter to go.

Mr Seaward, who is raising funds for Brainstorm, began the bike ride at about 09:00 BST on Thursday in Marlow and reached Paris on Saturday.