A CARDROSS man has got on his bike to help the fight against a deadly disease that killed his wife 10 years ago.

Colin Spiers is the head of the cancer charity Headcase, which is the only charity in the UK currently raising funds solely to provide research to find a cure for the most common and aggressive type of adult brain tumour called glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

Colin's wife Becky died of GBM in 2010.

He told the Advertiser: “Since setting up in October 2010, Headcase has raised over £750,000 – which, given that it is run by just myself and my father in law, Andy Johnson, we’re very proud of.

“We both work on an entirely voluntary basis and over 98 per cent of donations go directly to research as our overheads are very small indeed.

“Headcase only funds research to find a cure for GBM and so far, we have directed our funding to projects at Portsmouth, Aston, Wolverhampton and Nottingham Trent Universities.

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"I met my wife whilst studying at NTU so it’s great that we can invest monies there.

“We work in a very collaborative way and seek out synergies between different labs and pharmaceutical companies and products.

"Our work at NTU and Aston are great examples of this. It has produced results that puts us perhaps five years ahead of where a normal vaccine process would be.”

Colin is raising funds for the Ride for Alex and Rory Team – a charity fundraiser who are cycling from John O’Groats to Lands’ End to raise money.

On Thursday, August 20, he jumped on his bike to join up with Charlie Baigler, who is cycling the length of the country for his wife Alex who died of GBM.

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Charlie said: “Every part of this disease is dreadful for every member of the family – the diagnosis, the operations, the brutal treatments and their debilitating side-effects, trying to find hope, trying to rationalise everything and explain to your children mummy is never coming home again.

“I’m doing this ride to try and raise some money in the hope of finding a cure, or at the very least, an effective treatment for glioblastoma or any other brain tumour.”

Becky's death 10 years ago left Colin with three young children to look after.

“People often tell me that I’m doing a really great thing,” Colin continued, “but the reality is that I honestly believe I have created a framework for other people to do really amazing things – be that the ‘wizards’ in the research labs that we support, or the incredible people that do simple, and mad, things to raise money.

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“I set up Headcase as I didn’t want other families to go through what we did, especially my kids, who were just five, nine and 11 when their mum died. She just made it to her 40th birthday.

“My messages are always a simple: that by whatever it is that you do – donate, give up your time etc – you are helping to find a cure for an incurable disease.

"And when we do find the answer then that’s not a bad thing for all of us to be able to say – ‘I helped find the cure for an incurable disease’.”

Donations can be made directly to Headcase through PayPal Giving Fund which means Headcase gets 100 per cent of the donation. Visit paypal.com/gb/fundraiser/charity/3208704.

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