Heartbroken family dedicate funding to brain tumour research after losing 'a special person'

Bride-to-be Vikki McKeown, 25, had been in the final year of an occupational therapy degree at Ulster University and was planning her wedding to fiance James Wright when she began suffering "from what GPs thought were panic attacks".

But following a seizure in April 2016 she was diagnosed with a brain tumour and had surgery less than a week later.

After the diagnosis the McKeown family raised thousands of pounds for an alkaline water pump to try and slow the growth of cancer cells in Vikki's body. But she died on May31, 2016.

"Vikki really was a special person, she loved her life and knew life was for living, we just wish we could have made a lot more memories with her," said her sister Reah.

"She was so strong and always had hope, even when told there was nothing more the doctors could do for her. She was a fun person and was looking forward to the rest of her life, graduating (which the family received posthumously) to become an Occupational Therapist, she worked in the community and loved it, to getting married and to having children.

"She would have been the best auntie and and we couldn't wait for our family holidays. Always joking and smiling, a real tom boy growing up and into everything. Never had any fear."

Reah, who now wants other to be aware of her sisters symptoms, said they started "with a smell and a taste of metal and a shortness of breath".

Reah who said the tumour had grown behind Vikki's eye, added: "Doctors gave her different tablets but nothing was working and she was only on the waiting list for a CT Scan. She then took her first big seizure on 12th April 2016. Seven weeks after this she was gone."

In a bid to prevent another family from "going through what we all have, the family have helped raise £11,250.00, "which has been donated to Brainwaves NI and is going towards 6 months research into high grade tumours at Queens University".

"Vikki would be so proud of everyone for how they have helped," added Reah.

"It has been one year (since Vikki died) and it still seems like yesterday and we all miss her beyond words," she said.

"Vikki touched people's life's and she was loved."

See: Flute band’s tribute to tragic Vikki

Friends tell of heartache at Vikki McKeown funeral