July 20, 2018 3.16 pm This story is over 68 months old

Brave Lincoln firefighter loses brain tumour battle

Thoughts are with his family
Stefan Hawcroft and his wife Rebecca.

A Lincoln firefighter lost his battle with a brain tumour on Friday morning.

Stefan Hawcroft has been a firefighter for 10 years and based in Lincolnshire for the last five, but four years ago his life was turned upside down after the diagnosis.

As previously reported, Stefan was diagnosed with a brain tumour known as a diffused pontine glioma, also called DIPG, and continued his work at Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue during his radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment.

Stefan’s condition deteriorated and the NHS could no longer provide treatment, so his wedding to partner Rebecca was brought forward by 19 months and they were married under a special license on February 21 2018.

A fundraising page was started by his family to send Stefan to Germany for potentially life-saving treatment.

His sister Emma Hawcroft set up a go fund me page to try and raise £250,000 to send him to Germany for specialist immunotherapy treatment and £120,051 was raised.

Area Manager at Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue Debbie Yeates gave the following statement: “It is with great sadness that we have to break the news that firefighter Stefan Hawcroft died this morning.

Lincoln white watch with a message asking for help to support Stefan.

“Stefan had been a wholetime firefighter at Lincoln South for the past five years as well as working as an on-call firefighter over the border in Derbyshire.

“He had been bravely battling a rare form of cancer, for which many of his friends and colleagues within the service have been involved in raising funds to support his treatment.

“Many of us in Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue have been affected by Stefan’s illness and our thoughts and sincerest wishes are with his wife Rebecca and his family.”