Family left heartbroken after loving mother, 49, and father, 50, die from brain tumours within seven weeks of each other

• Ali Slaymaker and Steve Morrisey have left their 13-year-old daughter behind
• READ MORE: I realised the baby I was caring for in hospital was not my daughter during a nappy change after a midwife handed me the wrong baby 

A family have been left heartbroken following the deaths of a loving mother and father who both died from brain tumours within just seven weeks of each other.

It has tragically left their 13-year-old daughter oprhaned. 

Following the death of Ali Slaymaker, 49, on 24 August, 2023, her partner Steve Morrissey, 50, and their daughter moved from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, to Cullompton, Devon, to be near his family.

However, in 2022, in a tragic turn of events, Steve, a sales manager for Treatt – suppliers of flavour and fragrance ingredients – was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the fastest growing type of brain tumour, after suffering a seizure out of the blue.

Scans confirmed he had a growth on the right-hand side of his brain, and he sadly passed away at Exeter hospice Searle House.

By the time Steve passed away, it had spread and increased to three brain tumours. He had stopped working before his death, which enabled him to move to Devon in the autumn of 2023.

Glioblastoma is the most common type of malignant brain tumour in adults, with a devastatingly short average survival time of six months if untreated and only 12 to 18 months with an intensive and invasive treatment plan.

It is only since his death that Steve’s nephew, Ben Brown, of Tiverton, discovered how underfunded brain tumour research is.

It has inspired him and a group of nine other family members, friends, and Steve’s work colleagues to organise a fundraising 280-mile bike ride from Bury St Edmunds to Cullompton – which was Steve’s final journey – in aid of Brain Tumour Research.

The 31-year-old construction worker recalled: ‘Before my uncle collapsed there had been nothing prior to then. He was fit and healthy.

‘We lost both him and Ali in such a short space of time. It really is heartbreaking the whole situation.

‘Thankfully their daughter is doing amazing considering what she has been through. She is astonishing.’

Paying tribute to Steve, Ben said: ‘He was a very stubborn man but was just a lovely, nice, generous man who would do anything for anyone.’ 

The fundraising challenge will begin on 6 June and will take four days with the group having to complete 70 miles of cycling each day.

Ben, who only bought a bike last December, has been training since the beginning of the year.

He admitted: ‘I’ve never, ever done a long bike ride before. It’s going to be really tough physically and mentally but everyone has been training hard for it so we should be ok.

‘I wanted to do something for my uncle in his memory and, even more importantly, raise money for Brain Tumour Research because it is so underfunded.

‘Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, yet historically just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease.

‘I lost two members of my family to it last year and in 2014 one of my childhood best friends died of a brain tumour.

‘So that’s three people I know who have had it and it’s hard to get my head around it. They and other people are worth more than the one per cent of funding.

‘Watching how brain tumours rip families into pieces has made me realise we need to help make a change and I am attempting to do that by doing something positive.’

The target is to raise £5,000. To donate to the fundraiser, please click here.

It comes after a 33-year-old mother has passed away after refusing cancer treatment so she could give birth to her first child.

Azzurra Carnelos, 33, from Oderzo, Italy, died from breast cancer last week, leaving behind her eight-month-old son, Antonio.

WHAT IS A GLIOBLASTOMA?

Glioblastoma is considered the most aggressive tumor that can form in the brain.

Patients have a 10 per cent chance of surviving five years after their diagnosis, according to figures. The average lifespan is between 14 and 16 months.

Three adults per every 100,000 will be struck down with a glioblastoma, says The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS).

It is most commonly found in men aged 50 to 60, and there is no link between developing glioblastoma and having a previous history with other cancers.

WHAT IS THE TUMOR MADE OF? 

• The tumor is made up of a mass of cells growing quickly in the brain, and in most cases patients have no family history of the disease.
• It won’t spread to other organs, however, once it is diagnosed, it is nearly impossible to target, surgeons claim.
• Unlike other types of brain cancer which are more specifically located, glioblastoma can occur in any part of the brain. 

SYMPTOMS

• Patients typically complain of symptoms such as confused vision, trouble with memory, dizziness and headaches.
• The symptoms are somewhat nonspecific, and vary from person to person, and may not persist. 
• Some patients suffer from blindness if the tumour compresses their optic nerve, which connects the retina to the brain, resulting in vision loss.
• The disease is therefore impossible to diagnose based on symptoms alone.

The mother-of-one, who was a senior financial analyst at a bank, was first diagnosed in 2019 after a premonitory dream prompted her to get checked.

Her mother, Antonella, told La Tribuna di Treviso: ‘She’d dreamt of her grandmother, who’d passed away in the same way. She was telling her to get checked.’ 

Azzurra began chemotherapy shortly after, which put her breast cancer in remission, making it seem as though her she had overcome the disease. 

In February last year, she received the unexpected news that she was pregnant. However, by July, her cancer had returned.

‘She faced the discovery with courage, she rolled up her sleeves,’ Azzurra’s husband Francesco told La Republica. 

Her doctors advised her to start chemotherapy again, but Azzurra chose to delay the treatment so she could carry her baby to term and told her husband that ‘life must be defended’.

Francesco left his job to care for his wife and lived at the hospital, having all of his meals and sleeping there. 

He told La Repubblica: ‘I left my job to be by her side 24 hours a day. I lived in the hospital, I slept there, I ate there. 

‘She faced every moment with courage and conviction,’ he said. ‘I still remember her smile when our baby started saying “mommy”. She was happy like this, despite everything. With her sacrifice she gave us life. 

‘Until the end we talked about how to raise our Antonio.’

After Azzurra gave birth, she quickly resumed cancer treatment, but by then it was too late.