A CHARITY runner diagnosed with a brain tumour is back in training after being given the all-clear.

Teesside-born Iain Elliott was forced to pull out of last year's London Marathon when he was hit with the devastating news.

But after a successful operation and six weeks of intensive radiotherapy, the 29-year-old, originally from Brotton, east Cleveland, is preparing for the 26-mile course inext month.

Mr Elliott, who now lives in Bristol, was forced to pull out of the event when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour last February, after suffering from epilepsy.

Doctors ran tests and delivered the news that a tumour was causing the seizures.

Mr Elliott said: "It completely came out of the blue - I've been fit and healthy all my life.

"The operation to remove the tumour was supposed to be about the time of the run, so I pulled out.

"I then moved back home with my parents, to have six weeks of radiotherapy. It was extremely hard and I was very ill, but, luckily, I was fit and strong enough to recover."

He was given the all-clear from doctors at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, at Christmas and started training in January.

Employed as a community fundraiser for the Meningitis Research Foundation, Mr Elliott will be joining other runners from around the country who have chosen to support a charity.

Mr Elliott, who moved away from Brotton at 18, to go to university, is appealing to friends and family, as well as people in Teesside, to support him as he aims to raise more than £2,000.

He said: "So many of the people that I've had contact with while working here have shown such strength and been an incredible inspiration to me personally, and it's for these people that I'm running."

To sponsor Mr Elliott log on to www.justgiving. com/iainslondonmarathon