Pride of Britain 2023: Meet Regional Fundraiser of the Year Finalist Alan Johnstone

It is that time of year again where we celebrate those from our communities who have given their time to raise thousands of pounds to help others.

We've been searching for the ITV Border Pride of Britain Regional Fundraiser of the Year, and have whittled it down to four outstanding finalists.

Alan Johnstone has raised £25,000 in the past year for a brain tumour charity.

A father devoted to his daughter. Their bond has been strengthened by tragedy. Alan Johnstone’s wife Anneka died of a brain tumour four years ago, months after giving birth to Sienna.

Alan Johnstone said: “You never want to hear that your wife has stage four brain cancer. I think with the way her symptoms were going Anneka from day one was dizzy and within a month was paralysed down her left side.

"Sienna was only six months old at the time as well. To know she was not going to have her mum beside her in the future, all Anneka ever wanted to do was to be a mum to Sienna.

"It was torn away from her by a horrible disease and Anneka was getting torn away from her whole family with the diagnosis she got."

In the past year while raising the money for charity Alan has ran the London Marathon whilst raising a four-year-old and working full time for the NHS.

He said: “After Anneka passed away I needed something to focus on. I have always done physical challenges for other charities and I wanted to do something to raise money for the brain tumour charity.

Brain tumours are quite rare, there are still 80,000 people in the UK with one and it is still the biggest cancer killer of people aged under 40.

"Hopefully in the future there will be better treatment available and will stop a family going through what I have had to."

The regional winner will be announced during ITV Border's Lookaround 6pm news on Friday 15 September.