Instagram helps me offload thoughts: Brain tumour patient

Richard Walker and his wife Lucy received the brain tumour diagnosis on their wedding anniversary

A man who was diagnosed with a brain tumour on his birthday is using Instagram "as a way of offloading my thoughts".

Richard Walker, from Kidderminster, was diagnosed with a stage four glioblastoma multiforme tumour on his 51st birthday in December.

He started to use Instagram as a way to "pass the time" during his treatment.

The father-of-two said his account gained hundreds of followers in the first few weeks.

"During treatment in the hospital, the days and nights rolled into one," said Mr Walker.

"I started Instagram for something to do and to be a bit stupid," he added.

In December, Mr Walker woke up with red and green lights in the corner of his right eye.

Later, he was forced to pull over while driving his van and seek help after losing his peripheral vision.

Wife Lucy took him to the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, where he stayed for four days.

He then spent a further 13 days in hospital in Coventry in what he said "felt like solitary confinement" due to Covid restrictions.

The managing director of Weldmax UK, based in Stourport-on-Severn, has just finished six weeks of radiotherapy in Coventry, where he continued to post on Instagram.

Mr Walker said he was grateful to friends who volunteered to take him to Coventry, as the trip from his home in Kidderminster would, he believed, have cost "£3,000 in private transport" over the six-week period.

Mr Walker's sister-in-law Louise Pardoe is a Lloyds Bank manager, and is organising a "Wear A Hat Day" fundraising event for Brain Tumour Research at the Worcester, Kidderminster Droitwich and Cleobury Mortimer branches on Friday.