A WIDOW has detailed how her husband's incurable brain tumour left her family devastated to increase awareness of the disease and boost a national fundraising drive.

Julie Annis, of Great Ayton, said she hoped revealing the cruelty of the illness - which kills more people under the age of 40 than any other cancer in the UK - in a Brain Tumour Research charity direct marketing campaign would inspire people to help fund research to find a cure.

Her personal and poignant account, which will be posted through letterboxes across the country, tells how her husband, John, tried to hide being ill for nine months, lost interest in her and their eight-year-old daughter, Sophie,

He complained of a battery acid-like smell in his nose before having a seizure while he was at work at Boulby Mine in November 2013.

Saltburn Golf Club secretary Mrs Annis said a GP initially prescribed him paracetamol and it was only after she persuaded the former Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers soldier to visit Guisborough Medical Centre that he was diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma multiforme tumour.

She recounts their dismay after major surgery and gruelling chemotherapy failed to stop the tumour growing, her husband's increasingly strange behaviour and his determination to stage a fireworks display for children and wear his army medals at a Remembrance service.

Mrs Annis also describes the final harrowing moments of the 48-year-old's life after he awoke feeling sick at 7am on December 20 last year.

She said: "He fell down and I rang for an ambulance. When I came back he had a very violent seizure.

"I realised I had to get Sophie out of the house as I was scaring her with my screams of panic.

"I sent Sophie over to a neighbour’s in her pyjamas because I didn’t want her to see her dad like that. John died in my arms on the bathroom floor at 7.15am. The last words he said to me were 'I’m alright'.”

Mrs Ennis said it was unbearable that there was no cure for the disease which kills more than 5,000 people in the UK annually.

She added: "Every pound given today will support life-saving research tomorrow.”

People moved by her story are being urged to make a donation by visiting justgiving.com/TheHopeTree

The charity is also appealing to people to sign an e-petition at petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105560, calling for more funding for research into brain tumours, which needs 100,000 signatures by February to be considered for debate by Parliament.