TWO Somerset cousins are walking FOUR marathons to raise money for charity this year.

Carina Hand, 14, from Charlton Musgrove, Wincanton, and cousin Thea Grafton, 15, from Charlton Mackrell, Somerton, were inspired to take on the challenge after Carina’s brother, Tristan, was treated for a brain tumour when he was younger.

So they decided to walk four marathons together, with the aim of raising £2,600 for The Brain Tumour Charity.

Tristan, who is now 17, was diagnosed when he was just six-years-old.

“My brother, Tristan had his first epileptic fit in the spring of 2010, he seemed to be a very fit and healthy little boy,” said Carina.

“Initially we were told it was a febrile convulsion, but with subsequent fits it became apparent something else was happening.

“The optometrist requested more frequent eye tests, as his sight was deteriorating surprisingly quickly.

“Finally he had an MRI scan, which showed a 50mm ganglioma tumour and large fist sized associated cyst.

“He underwent nine hours of surgery two days later.

“As a family we hadn’t had any family members with a brain tumour so the whole thing was very new, at the time our family didn’t know much about it and I don’t think we all fully understand it still.

“It’s such an awful thing that it sort of seems unimaginable, but the reality is it’s more common than we all believe it to be.”

Tristan is now living life to the full after he responded well to the surgery.

But Carina and Thea decided to raise money for families who are not so fortunate.

The pair, who are due to start in Year 11 in September, have already completed two marathons this year - one in February and one in April.

Their aim is to complete one marathon each season, and so they set out to complete their third walk yesterday (August 11).

“We knew that the whole lockdown and Covid-19 situation would also be affecting the diagnosis and treatment times for people with brain tumours and we wanted to try and help with this,” added Carina.

“We wanted our challenge to be not only physical but mentally challenging as well.

“On the first walk we woke up at 5am so that we could be finished before the sun set because the days were so short back in February, and it was very cold, so we are looking forward to being able to start the walk later and not have to worry about having enough layers.

"Although we try to focus on the positives we do know that it is an extremely tiring challenge and at times we do think it is almost unmanageable.

“But we know that with each donation made the money is going to contribute hugely to someone’s life.

"On our second walk we wore charity signs round our necks and on our backpacks and this attracted attention from the public and boosted our donations; we had one lady who we had never met stop on the side of the road and donate £20 to us, this was a huge morale booster for us."

The pair have already raised £1,499 for The Brain Tumour Charity.

Gina Almond, The Brain Tumour Charity’s director of fundraising and marketing, added: “We are extremely grateful to Carina and Thea for their fantastic fundraising and wish them all the very best.

“Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of the under 40s and, unlike other cancers, survival rates have not improved significantly in recent decades.

“We want to lead the way in changing this and fighting brain tumours on all fronts through our work.

“But it’s only through the efforts of people like Carina and Thea that we’ll be able to change these shocking statistics in the future and bring hope to the thousands of people who are diagnosed with a brain tumour every year.”

To donate visit justgiving.com/team/Carina-Thea.