TWO friends united in their brain tumours diagnoses are holding a Twilight Walk at the Eden Project.

Diane Smith and Ellen Yates are raising funds for The Brain Tumour Charity with the Twilight Walk in Cornwall on Monday, March 10.

Friends from either side of the county, Diane from Harrowbarrow in South East Cornwall, and Ellen in Illogan near Redruth, have teamed up to form the ‘Two Brains One Aim’ team and hope to jointly raise £3,000. They are already at 49 per cent of their target as the big day looms.

“Ideally we’d love to reach that,” said Diane. “But anything for the Brain Tumour Charity is a bonus.”

The Twilight Walk is a national month of fundraising for the charity. Funds raised will be used for three key areas for the charity: research, support and campaigning. The Brain Tumour Charity is the world’s leading brain tumour charity and the largest dedicated funder of research into brain tumours globally.

The ladies are asking for people to come forward, not just to make donations but to come along and walk, to raise awareness and celebrate their own lives. “The Eden Project have been brilliant”, says Diane, allowing the ladies to do the walk there.

The Eden Project stepped in to host the walk for the ladies after being approached by Ellen. The walk will be a guided 3km route around the venue starting at 11am. In adverse weather conditions the walkers will be allowed to walk around the Mediterranean biome.

Community fundraiser for The Brain Tumour Charity Anoushka Baker said: “We are incredibly grateful to both Diane and Ellen, and of course the Eden Project, for being inspired to do their Twilight Walk at this iconic location. The Eden Project has worked closely with us to create an exciting route through their grounds to appeal to all abilities.

“The community Twilight Walks are an opportunity for people to come together and make a real difference to those affected by brain tumours. Living with brain tumours themselves, Diane and Ellen know only too well the effects this terrible disease can have on people’s lives.”

Diane’s diagnosis with a brain tumour began with a bleed on the brain in March 2021. She was rushed into hospital. “That’s where my journey started”, she said. After surgery which removed 80 percent of the tumour, she now lives with the 20 percent left in her head.

After being medically retired from her job as a Advanced Nurse Practitioner with CAMHS in Aldershot in Hampshire, Diane and her husband relocated to Cornwall in August 2022. Diane said: “There was no way I could work again. The surgery really affected by balance and I had to learn to walk again.”

Diane now lives in Harrowbarrow with her husband. It’s on one level which is ideal for Diane who spends a lot of her time at her dining room table painting rocks. She is currently painting hundreds of them to dot around the pathways on the Eden site during the walk.

“The rocks have the hashtag #twilightwalk on the back if anyone that picks one up to take it home, would like to send a donation or just raise awareness for the charity. They can also be passed on to someone else who might need it,” she added.

The 59-year-old who can’t walk without her husband and her walking stick took part in a Twilight Walk last year, and met Ellen. Both ladies together decided they’d like to host the Twilight Walk this year.

“Ellen went for a visit to the Eden Project and brought up the idea with them, and they ran with it, so Ellen was the brainchild behind it, excuse the pun,” laughs Diane.

The two set up meetings with the Eden Project and the Brain Tumour Charity. The seed of the idea was shown in September and the Twilight Walk went live online in January with Diane already exceeding her target of £300 by 258 percent.

Sixty-eight year old Ellen Yates from Illogen, Redruth was diagnosed with an Acoustic Neuroma grade one brain tumour ten years ago. It was benign and since then she’s been stable on ‘watch and wait’. Ellen has been selling her crocheted items, which are her passion, to raise money for Brains Trust and The Brain Tumour Charity via their online shops.

Her fundraising efforts are to remember her best friend Dawn who died of a grade four brain tumour. “That was four years ago in September this year,” said Ellen. The pair had been best friends from the age of four and she is keeping her memory alive, she says.

So far, fourteen will be walking in the team for Two Brains One Aim but the ladies are keen to increase numbers. “People who’d like to join us just have to use the booking form for Eden as they need to know who’s coming in. We’re asking for a donation as it is raising money for charity,” Ellen said.

“What is just as important is raising awareness; there’s 130 different brain tumours raising from grade one to grade four - they’re like the forgotten cancer - they don’t get as much media attention except when someone like Davina McCall has an operation to remove a tumour.

“It’s also just as important for our nearest and dearest to get the support too. Sometimes I think it’s easier for us with the brain tumour than it is for those people close to us,” she added.

Eden Project is asking for a donation to the ladies fundraising page to take part in the walk, and to sign up for a ticket via the Eden page. The Eden Project is funding the entrance to the site for anyone who is walking.

Visit Diane and Ellen’s page via: www.justgiving.com/team/ellen-yates-1730813885154

For more information, or to sign up, visit: www.events.more-human.co.uk/event/1732197196034x662773780403454000