A TEENAGER is embarking on a charity walk to raise money in memory of her parents who died due to brain tumours.

Jenna Douglas, 19, from Colchester, is set to walk 25km in September with her boyfriend and his family in to raise money for charity after losing both her parents, Ian and Zoe, to brain tumours.

She said: “My mum was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2016 or 17, I must have been about 14 at the time.

“She was OK, she went through chemotherapy, began living life again and then a year-and-a-half later dad was diagnosed with a similar brain tumour, but he deteriorated quite quickly.

"He was put into a care home not far from our house and then he sadly passed away at 55.

“Just over a year later, they found another tumour had grown in my mum, it was really aggressive, and she was put into a hospice for about three months before she passed away at just 51.

“Before I met my boyfriend Jacob and his family, I didn’t really speak to anyone, I just got on with it.

“It wasn’t until both had passed away that I thought I need to speak to someone and get help and support which I do now.

“It is definitely something I know I will never get over, I am just coping with it and it still affects me day to day, but I have help.”

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Now, Jenna will be taking on a 25k South Coast Challenge with her boyfriend Jacob Wilson and his family, to raise money for the Brain Tumour Charity.

She said: “I am looking forward to it, we all thought it would be nice to raise money and awareness.

“Everyone there will be raising money for different charities, and it’ll be nice to be around people who may have been affected by something similar, to realise you are not the only person that has been through it, as it can feel lonely and isolating.”

Jacob’s mum Karen echoed this, saying: “It will be a great sense of achievement to hand over a sum of money to a charity knowing it might make a genuine difference in their research, and to do it as a family means that much more.”

So far more than £1,000 has been raised collectively.

To donate, visit justgiving.com/fundraising/Ianandzoedouglas.

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