BOROUGH of Poole chief executive Andrew Flockhart will be taking part in Sunday's Great South Run in memory of his brother who died from a brain tumour.

Andrew will be swapping the board room for the Portsmouth streets in a bid to raise as much cash as he can for the Brain Tumour Research charity.

His brother, David, was a professor of medicine, genetics and pharmacology at Indiana University, USA. He was also director of the Institute of Personalised Medicine at the same university.

David, who dedicated his career to making breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer, was diagnosed with an aggressive and incurable brain tumour - glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). He died in November last year.

Andrew said: "It is tragic that David worked so tirelessly to help others with cancer, yet nothing could be done for the cancer he was diagnosed with.

"I will be so pleased if my 10-mile tribute to David in some ways helps to make a research breakthrough so that others don't have to lose their loved ones the way I have."

Two years before David's diagnosis, the Flockharts lost their mother, Pamela, to a GBM. Their cousin also died of a GBM in 1999.

Andrew said: "My brother was convinced that there had to be a genetic link, or at least a predisposition, to brain tumours in our family.

"Three of them, all in my mother's bloodline, diagnosed with GBM."

Andrew will be among 25,000 runners taking part in this years Great South Run, a ten-mile course around the Southsea and Portsmouth area.

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

"Research into brain tumours is woefully underfunded, and more is desperately needed to make the sort of advances that have been seen in other cancers."