FORMER Poole schoolboy and zookeeper Adrian Walls will have surgery for a brain tumour next week.

Adrian, 40, is head of the bird section at London Zoo and was recently featured in an ITV documentary about his job.

Now he is hoping he will be able to return to work after the essential surgery is carried out.

His dad, Ray, who lives in Parkstone, said: “He has been working but has had a few problems with his balance so he has been doing more office work than usual.

“He loves his job and hopes he will be able to return to it full-time when he recovers.

“He has been told everything should be fine so we have all got our fingers crossed.”

Adrian, a former pupil of Ashdown Technology College in Canford Heath, worked at Merley Bird Gardens for 10 years after leaving school. Since then he has been employed in Chessington Zoo, Flamingo Park on the Isle of Wight and at ZSL London Zoo.

Adrian manages the large team of bird keepers at the zoo in Regent’s Park, where they look after more than 100 different species from around the world.

In July he was filmed introducing a new group of young penguins to the colony at the zoo for the three-part ITV1 documentary, The Zoo.