A father given 15 months to live says the support he has received has been “life-changing”.

Rick Smith originally went to his doctor in February with constant headaches and was later diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.

The 39-year-old has no life insurance policy and a mortgage on his home in Thistle Hill Minster, Isle of Sheppey; and being the main income earner, he was worried what the outcome would be.

So family and friends have rallied together to help and set up a GoFundMe page with a goal of £50,000.

Since then it has raised more than £70,000.

The father of three said: “It’s been amazing, the support has been life-changing, it hasn’t quite sunk in yet.

“My family, my work, I’ve had a big jumble of things going through my mind since the diagnosis.

“I don’t normally get upset unless I am talking about this but the support has been amazing.”

At the time of writing the fundraiser has reached £78,000.

Fiance Katrina Binfield said: “Rick doesn’t normally get emotional, the amount of support has almost been overwhelming.

“The GoFundMe has been incredible The support the donations, all of it; we are so grateful.

“It means we as a family won’t have to worry as much anymore.

“We’re grateful for all the messages, we sit here read them have a little cry but the amount has been insane and it keeps us going.

“It keeps us on track to know everyone is behind us so we want to say thank you.

“Thank you for all the messages, there are a lot of them and we’re getting through but to everyone thank you.

Rick’s family has also travelled from Southampton to be with him.

The ground manager had a biopsy last Friday (March 15) and is expecting results by the end of this week.

Rick suffered a seizure on Sunday (March 17) and spent a night in hospital but has since been discharged with epilepsy medication.

Katrina said: “The seizure lasted two to three minutes and luckily I’ve worked with people who had seizures before so I know how to deal with it.

“We were told it could be a symptom of the tumour but it was believed it could’ve been caused by the biopsy.

“When the results come in Friday, King’s Hospital will meet and then we’ll be on a video call with them in the early part of next week.

“We’ll see what they say and then we’ll be on track with our healthcare agents to find the best treatment.”