A Haggerston author who helped pen Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder’s autobiography is running the London Marathon to raise money cancer research, after his niece died of a brain tumour and both his mother and sister-in-law battled cancer.

In 2011 Luke Bainbridge’s four-year old niece Billie was diagnosed with a brain tumour and she passed away just over a year later.

Her mother Terri, Luke’s sister-in-law, was diagnosed with breast cancer the same year, and had to undergo a mastectomy and an operation to remove her lymph nodes.

The 39-year-old whose mother also has the devastating disease said: “Our family has been very heavily hit by cancer, and it’s been a very difficult and sad time for all of us.

“To have one person affected by cancer is hard enough, but when two members of the family were diagnosed in the same year, it was very painful.”

Luke, who lives in Middleton Road, has had to overcome his own debilitating medical condition - ulcerative colitis - to run the 26-mile route to raise funds for World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF).

He has battled the chronic condition which affects the bowel for eight years and has only been in remission for the past three.

He said: “During my first stint in Homerton hospital I dropped from 11½ stone to 7½ stone and wasn’t out of bed for nearly a month, so the idea of running a marathon was pretty distant.

“At the time, running a mile seemed impossible – so to run for 26 will be a huge achievement for me.

“What motivates me to help raise money for research is the hope that I could help spare someone else the pain and grief that my family have gone through.”

To donate see www.justgiving.com/luke-bainbridge.