A mum, told she might never walk again after a stroke left her paralysed following surgery to remove a brain tumour, is walking a half-marathon for charity.

Sheppey's answer to Captain Tom, Denise Fincham, is walking 0.42 miles every day around her Eastchurch home to raise money for Brain Tumour Research.

The 39-year-old was diagnosed with three meningiomas in May 2020 after suffering from debilitating headaches and sudden vomiting.

She underwent surgery to remove the largest of her tumours and a hole was cut out of her skull and replaced with a titanium plate.

However, Denise suffered a bleed on her brain and a stroke, resulting in paralysis from below her neck.

After claiming she no longer wanted to live and enduring months of rehabilitation, the mum-of-one was told it was unlikely she would ever walk again.

But, after many gruelling hours of hard work using walking aids and after a set-back caused by a fall, which resulted in her needing a full hip replacement, Denise has now made it her mission to raise money for charity.

The stay-at-home mum said: "I’ve decided to attempt to complete a half marathon around my house with a combination of walking, marching and using the stairs over the month of March.

"It's going to be quite a challenge for me as I’m still learning to walk and can only manage a short distance until I need a rest.

"To complete my challenge of 13.1 miles I need to hit 0.42 miles a day. I'm tracking my progress by wearing a Fitbit around my ankle."

Denise had initially intended to walk the distance of a full marathon, but after suffering from a seizure, likely caused by her overdoing it, she has now refocused her target.

She'd like to raise £1,000 for the charity, which is dedicated to funding research and raising awareness of brain tumours.

She said: "My family is proud of me for what I’ve achieved, especially as none of us thought I’d come as far as this.

"My husband, Michael is amazing. He works full time, does all the washing and cleaning, walks the dog, looks after our nine-year-old son and, on top of that, he looks after me, he’s been under so much pressure.

"People say to me that I’m an inspiration but I take my inspiration from my husband of 12 years because what I’ve had to go through is nothing compared to what he has."

In 2016 Michael was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called Sarcoma, a term for a broad group of cancers that begin in the bones and in the soft tissues.

After five weeks of radiotherapy and then surgery to remove the tumour, he now has the all clear but has check ups every six months.

Denise said: "When I was diagnosed I knew what he’d been through so it was a shock to hear that I also had it.

"I had to compose myself and then phone him, because of Covid-19 restrictions, to say I had brain tumours and they were cancerous."

After her surgery Denise spent six and a half weeks at King’s College waiting to be transferred to a rehab centre, she was moved to Orpington Hospital just before Christmas.

She said: “I was there until mid-April 2021 and didn’t see my son, James, for a three-month period because of Covid-19 restrictions and, being a stay-at-home mum, that broke my heart.”

Denise was meant to go home in March 2021 but caught Covid whilst there, by the time she went home in April she could clench her left fist and open her fingers up.

However, she couldn’t hold her left arm up and wasn’t able to move her leg on that side at all.

Despite this Denise was determined to move, she said: "I had a really good physio and those sessions, as well as those with my occupational therapist, enabled me to start moving myself.

"Being able to transfer myself to the commode was such a huge step forward for me because it was such a degrading thing needing help to get on and off the bed pan.

"I got progressively better and finally started being able to take small steps with a walker.

"I’m now working on transferring to walking sticks."

But unfortunately, in October last year, Denise had an accident which set back her recovery.

She said: "I fell and hurt my side and had to have a full hip replacement. I went back into hospital for another week-and-a-half and had to learn to walk again when I came out.

"I’m just about back to where I was before the fall, although I’ve lost a lot of confidence so have had to work hard on that."

Denise's physiotherapist has said it's probably a good idea not to push herself too hard and a half marathon will help her become stronger.

She finished: "I’ve got an MRI scheduled later this month to see what my other two tumours are doing.

"At my last scan they were stable so unless they start growing or cause me to have symptoms, they will be left with continued monitoring every six months.

"In the meantime, I know I’ll continue to have the support of Michael, and of my friends and family, without them I don’t know where I’d be."

If you'd like to follow Denise's journey, find out more about her diagnoses or donate, click here.