Son takes on charity challenge after mum who 'sounded drunk' later died from brain tumour
Watch Ulani Seaman's report
The son of a Somerset woman who died of a brain tumour is taking on one hundred exercises a day in her memory.
The family of Elly Monoghan noticed she was slurring her words during a phone call in March 2022, which raised alarm bells.
After a call to 111, Elly was taken to Musgrove Park Hospital, where a scan revealed she had a bleed on the brain caused by Glioblastoma, an aggressive but common type of brain cancer.
After a short battle with the disease, she passed away in July this year.
Her son Pete said: "Mum was due to spend the day with my sister. When I phoned at 10am, it sounded like she was drunk.
"She just seemed a bit slurry, a bit confused and the best way it made me think is 'has she had a drink?'
"I asked if Dad was there and after Mum passed the phone to him, I asked if she had been drinking to which he said no. We knew something wasn’t right."
Following her diagnosis, Elly had an operation followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
She only managed one full round of chemotherapy treatment, as her body was unable to cope.
Pete said: “Mum’s platelet levels weren’t where they needed to be to continue with chemo which finished in October.
"In the December, although a scan showed no regrowth, we were told that this disease would kill her.
“For every question we asked, the medical team seemed to come back with the same disappointing response; there was no other treatment available.”
Pete explained that although the treatment his mum received was great, more needs to be done to tackle the disease.
Pete added: "Throughout the process, we were left quite frustrated. The NHS was brilliant and it was through absolutely no fault of their own. The treatment that she received was second to none.
"But one per cent of the cancer spend across the country is spent on brain tumours.
"The treatment that my mum got was similar to what patients would have got 10 to 15 years ago."
Inspired by the death of his mum, Pete has signed up for the Brain Tumour Research 100 a Day Your Way challenge.
Pete is offering supporters who donate to his Facebook fundraising page the opportunity to pick the activity for one day of his 100-a-Day exercise.
He said: “So far, suggestions of exercises have included: burpees, crunches and star jumps. I’m steadily plotting my days on the calendar.
“I’m hoping this will encourage more people to donate and get people talking about brain tumours to help raise awareness and drive funding towards research.”
Pete is also campaigning alongside Brain Tumour Research to help reach 100,000 signatures on its petition to increase research funding, in the hope of prompting a parliamentary debate.
The charity is calling on the Government to offer £110 million of current and new funding to kick-start an increase in the national investment in brain tumour research to £35 million a year by 2028.
It wants the Government to recognise brain tumour research as a critical priority and says the increase in research investment would put brain tumours in line with the spending on cancers of breast, bowel and lung, as well as leukaemia.
Hugh Adams of Brain Tumour Research said: "We can fund our own centres of research, we're dedicated to centres where the research takes place and the fundraising that Pete's doing will go towards that.
"But charities can't do it all on their own. We need the Government to step up."
In response, the Department of Health and Social Care said: "Brain cancer can be a devastating disease and our sympathies are with all those affected.
We’ve specifically allocated £40 million for research in this area, on top of £1 billion a year for wider health research.
“We’ve invested in every suitable research application made and the funding will continue to be available for further studies to develop new treatments and therapies for brain tumours.
“To encourage further successful applications, we are investing in infrastructure, workshops for researchers and training for clinicians.”