Wiltshire doctor turned TV scientist taking on tandem challenge

Dr Stuart Farrimond (left) and Mike Brooks are hoping to raise £5,000 for Brain Tumour Research

A doctor who built a career in television after a brain tumour forced him out of his profession is taking on a fundraising cycling challenge.

Dr Stuart Farrimond, from Trowbridge, will be riding coast-to-coast from Kent to Somerset on 24 June, on a tandem bike with friend Mike Brooks.

The 41-year-old, had to leave frontline medicine in 2008 after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.

He is known as the food scientist on BBC Two's Inside the Factory.

The duo will set off from Minster-on-Sea at about 04:20 BST and ride about 200 miles (322km) to Weston-Super-Mare, hoping to arrive before nightfall.

They are aiming to raise £5,000 for Brain Tumour Research.

The pair are travelling across England from the east to west coast

Dr Stu, as he is known on tv, had been a junior doctor for only three years when was diagnosed at the age of 25.

A scan for a hormone imbalance picked up the growth while he was working at the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

Two operations to remove the tumour left him with epilepsy and chronic fatigue, which forced him to leave the profession.

"After training for years to be a doctor for it to then be stripped from you. I lost part of my identity," he said.

Despite a third operation in 2019, he still had to go through radiotherapy and chemotherapy but was advised by health professionals to exercise as much as he could during treatment.

Dr Stu's brain tumour makes solo cycling unsafe

The brain tumour impacted his balance, depth perception and reactions, and a serious accident while out riding left him with a fractured jaw, eye socket and two broken teeth.

With solo outdoor cycling unsafe, he began to use an indoor bike and found that made a huge difference.

"Every morning and every evening, no matter how horrible I was feeling, I did 10 to 15 minutes - it was miraculous the effect that it had," Dr Stu said.

'Life-changing'

For the past few years he has been tandem cycling with Mr Brooks, which has given him the freedom to cycle outdoors again.

He added: "The fact that a brain tumour has the potential to impact every single faculty, vision, personality, speech and movement is massive and life-changing.

"It affects so many people and we must do more to bring brain tumour research in line with the advances in other cancers."

According to charity Brain Tumour Research, the disease kills more men under 70 than prostate cancer, but just 1% of cancer research spending has been allocated to it since records began in 2002.

Mel Tiley, community development manager at the charity, said: "We are grateful Stu has lent his voice and story to help us raise awareness of the disease.

"It's with the support of people like Stu, which will help us closer to finding a cure for all types of brain tumours."