Brain tumour victim Alastair Travis lived just long enough to savour the start of his new babies’ lives.

It summed up what he wrote in the final chapter of his four-part series for The Brain Tumour Charity’s website in 2023 - how cancer had taught him that “a good life cut short, is still a good life”.

Now his sister Joanna Travis will make the biggest tribute to him she can on April 26.

Joanna, 37, said: “I will be running the London Marathon 2026 in loving memory of my younger brother, Alastair Travis, who passed away on January 25, 2025, of an astrocytoma, a type of malignant brain tumour. He was just 35 years old and new father to ten-week-old twins, Sid and Raffi.

Alastair Travis with his twins Sid and Raffi, January 2025.
Alastair Travis with his twins Sid and Raffi. (Alastair Travis)

“Ali was an incredibly special person, who faced his terminal diagnosis and three years of gruelling treatment with great courage and resilience. Nothing short of taking on a marathon in the midst of raising three small but mighty children would do justice to such a wonderful person.

“All funds will go to The Brain Tumour Charity, who supported Ali throughout his illness, to aid in their vital work supporting those diagnosed with this devastating, currently incurable disease, raising awareness and campaigning for better funding and research.”

Joanna and Alastair grew up near Alton, where Joanna still lives. Alastair went to school in Basingstoke and Winchester before going on to Oxford University and adult life in Hackney.

Summing up 2022 - the “best year of my life” despite his cancer - Alastair said: “It was a year where I was my oldest friend’s best man and gave a speech at his wedding. A year where I met my two new nieces and got to know my parents as individuals. And it was the year Cecily and I got married.”