In April 2019, after a short 6 month battle, we lost my beautiful, feisty, loving, courageous aunt to what we have learned to be one of the most aggressive types of brain tumours: Glioblastoma Multiforme. This beast of a cancer has one of the lowest survival rates and more funding is needed for better research to help successfully fight it.

Zia’s battle was short, but it was awful, for her and for those of us who love her and watched her go through it.

Treatment options were limited and her quality of life was never the same from the moment she was diagnosed. It sent shock waves through our family and it’s a pain we still haven’t (and may never) fully recover from.

She leaves a massive hole in our family, and we miss her warmth, her smile, her crazy laugh and her joy for life.

My family and I are doing this night walk the day after what would have been her 62nd birthday. We want to honour her and all her crazy wonderfulness, and raise money to help Brain Cancer charities make progress in research and better treatment options so that other families, other individuals, don’t have to suffer the way she (and we) did.