THE father of a "beautiful, vibrant and caring" woman has told spoken of how his 35-year-old daughter passed away after battling a brain tumour for eight years.

Rosanna 'Rosy' Gwynn, of the Haxby Road area, was diagnosed with cancer when she was 27 and had suffered a fit.

Her friends and family have helped raise more than £2000 and her parents Barrie and Gerry and brother Jack Weatherall have donated a further sum to The Brain Tumour Charity.

Her father Barrie has thanked Rosy's friends for their generosity, which he said reflected the impact his daughter had on people’s lives.

Speaking in tribute, he said: "She was beautiful, vibrant, caring, gregarious, obstinate, funny... and lit up everyone's life that she touched.

"Throughout her illness Rosy was the strongest of all of us and, as ever, right up to the end she was caring for those she loved, whilst preparing to face the greatest challenge of all.

"Rosy's greatest asset was her voice and communication skills and the last two months were the most difficult as she had lost her speech and the ability to communicate with us.

" As a family we can't begin to [say] what a huge gap has been left in our lives."

Rosy, was happily married to Heath Gwynn, 48, who she met when working at the York-based business Continuum.

Brought up in York she attended Park Grove School and later St Olave's and St Peter's School and then Lancaster University and Newcastle University, where she studied an MA in Gallery Studies.

Diagnosed with a brain tumour after having a fit when she was 27, Rosy went on to undergo surgery with leading neurosurgeon Henry Marsh but as the tumour was in the cortex of the brain, which controls motor skills, surgery was unable to safely remove all of the tumour.

She was cared for by her family and at home with her husband before her death in December. Despite having been bought a wheelchair it remained propped in the hallway of her home, Barrie said, testament to her spirit and determination.

Mr Weatherall, who said only a small proportion of money was spent on brain tumour research nationally, has told of how they were keen to support The Brain Tumour Charity’s HeadSmart campaign to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of the disease in young patients.

"We as a family - especially Heath, Rosanna’s husband, and Jack, her brother - want to support the HeadSmart message to help reduce the number of people having to suffer the kind of agony we endured for eight years," Mr Weatherall said.

‘We were very lucky in that we enjoyed Rosanna's personality and dazzling smile for 35 years.

"Others are not so lucky. There can be nothing more devastating than the loss of a very young child to this cruel disease."

- Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40.

Over 9,000 people are diagnosed each year with a primary brain tumour, including 500 children and young people – that’s 25 people every day.

Diagnosis times are longer in the UK than in many other countries. The HeadSmart campaign aims to cut diagnosis time to less than five weeks in order to save lives and minimise the long-term disability caused by brain tumours.

The main symptoms of brain tumours in children include persistent or recurrent vomiting. balance issues, headaches, behaviour change or fits an seizures.

More information about HeadSmart is available on The Brain Tumour Charity’s website, www.thebraintumourcharity.org/awareness