Potton teacher runs London Marathon dressed as a brain to mark 10th anniversary of surgery

Jane Walker, 55, has supported The National Brain Appeal ever since going under the knife, with her marathon challenge raising nearly £4,000.

Husband Gary, son Connor, daughter Joely and her fiancée Ben, Jane’s brother Ashley and his husband Robert all joined The National Brain Appeal staff at mile 11.5 to cheer her on, and then again at mile 21 and at the finish line.

“It was such a lovely atmosphere,” said Jane. “I just wanted to enjoy every single moment of it and it gave me a real boost to see my family and all The National Brain Appeal staff along the route.”

Jane was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2016 – and although she experienced some difficulties finding words, reading and writing, in the six months leading up to it, she brushed it off as the pressures of life as a teacher.

But in the early hours of a June morning, she woke to get a glass of water – and things started unravelling.

She explained: “I tried to speak to Gary but it was like everything in my brain was scrambled and the same syllable kept coming out of my mouth. Gary tried to pick me up and then my legs and arms began to jolt. I so wanted to say to Gary that I loved him but I felt like I was slipping away.”

In mid-July, she received the devastating results of her MRI scan – a brain tumour the size of a satsuma, a meningioma, which grows in the membranes that cover the brain – and had surgery that August.

“For a while, my life was turned upside down,” said Jane, “but with the continuous monitoring and care from the team at the National Hospital I have been able to live life to the full.”

Just before Christmas in 2023, an MRI scan revealed that some residual tumour had reoccurred in the main central vein in Jane’s brain, which was inoperable. In June 2024 she had gamma knife radiosurgery, a non-invasive, highly precise form of radiotherapy, which so far has stopped it from increasing in size.

“The experience of the last 10 years has made me look at life quite differently to before,” she said. “I really feel so grateful and like I was given a second chance at life. Before it was like I was on a continuous hamster wheel, always with so much to do and never getting on top of things. Now I take time to notice the little things in life.”

Jane also takes part in The National Brain Appeal’s annual art on envelopes fundraiser, A Letter in Mind, with other fundraisers including running 50 km over the weekend of 50th birthday in 2020 and taking part in the charity’s Pyjama Party in 2016, where her pupils also got involved.

She finished the marathon in just under five hours, and said: “I ran the whole 26.2 miles and I feel so proud of myself. I’m so grateful and thankful to everyone who supported me. They knew how important this was for me.”

To support Jane’s fundraising go to 2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/jane-walker