BBC reporter Chloe Ball Hopkins, from Kingswood, has completed a skydive to raise funds for The Brain Tumour Charity following the death of her friend Lauren Scudamore.

Lauren was first diagnosed with an inoperable diffuse pontine glioma in 2011 after suffering headaches and feeling dizzy.

Following chemotherapy and radiotherapy, Lauren’s tumour went into remission but, in autumn 2012, returned. She passed away on Boxing Day 2012.

BBC Bristol reporter Chloe, 20, from Kingswood near Wotton-under-Edge, said: “Watching your best friend go through something like that knowing there is nothing you can do is truly heart breaking.

“I spent as much time with her as possible and when we finally got the news that she had gone, I was just in shock. I couldn’t believe it.”

Chloe, who herself suffers from muscle wasting disease muscular dystrophy, vowed to raise awareness and funds for research into the disease that killed Lauren.

“I knew I wanted to raise funds to help others like Lauren,” she said. “The skydive seemed poignant because we had planned to do one together but Lauren passed away before we could. I did it with five others, some who knew Lauren and others with links to the disease. It was a fantastic experience and the perfect way to remember my best friend.”

The group have so far raised over £4,500.

Chloe will continue her awareness drive in November at Catwalk Perfect UK Beauty Pageant. She decided to get involved when she heard that The Brain Tumour Charity was CPUK’s chosen charity.

“My charity work with CPUK means so much to me, it’s important to get the word out there about such an underfunded cancer,” she said. “I know Lauren would have been right there cheering me on – I’m doing it for her.”

Geraldine Pipping, The Brain Tumour Charity’s director of fundraising, said: “We receive no government funding and rely 100 per cent on voluntary donations, so it’s only through the efforts of Chloe and others like her that we can work towards our twin goals of doubling survival and halving the harm caused by brain tumours, which are the biggest cancer killer of children and people under 40 in the UK. Survival rates have not improved significantly over the last 40 years. We need to change that.”