A FAMILY are struggling to come to terms with the void left by their "exceptional son" after cancer claimed his life at 26.

After a battle which lasted two gruelling years, former Huntington School pupil Oliver Grant lost his fight against bowel cancer on April 22.

His family, dad David, mum Jenny and his 24-year-old sister, Lucy, remember him as "gentle and unassuming" despite him being an imposing six foot five inches tall.

They turned the dining room at their home in Chestnut Avenue, off Stockton Lane, York, into a bedroom to care for Oliver after he became too sick to walk in September last year and had been at his bedside day and night.

"I think he touched the hearts of so many people who cared for him," said Jenny.

"Everybody was deeply affected by him and, despite his own desperate plight, he always had time to ask how other people were and he never lost his sense of humour."

Primary school teachers realised Oliver had the potential to go far when he attended Hempland School.

"I remember one of them said he could do anything he liked," said David, who works as a medical underwriter at Norwich Union.

"When he went to Huntington secondary school they nurtured him there and he got into drama and played the lead in Dr Faustus.

"We couldn't believe it was our son when we went to see the play. It was two-and- a-half hours long and most of it was him speaking."

In 1996, the Press reported how Oliver then, 16, and a lower sixth-form student studying German, General Studies, English and History, won a fortnight's all-expenses trip to Berlin in a national essay competition.

Colin Hedges, co-ordinator of European awareness and contacts at the school, said at the time: "Oliver did really well and I think it is very, very important to encourage European relations.

"He is internationally- minded and a very thoughtful boy."

After getting As and Bs in his A-levels, Oliver took a year out and went to work for Air China teaching English to Chinese cabin crew and pilots.

Oliver went on to study German with History at Edinburgh University as part of a four-year degree course which included one year studying in Vienna, graduating with first class honours.

After graduating, he worked for Norwich Union before going back to Edinburgh University to study for a doctorate. But he never finished the course as he was diagnosed with bowel cancer in February 2004.

An operation to remove a tumour was originally thought a success, but the cancer came back and despite intensive bouts of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, Oliver developed a brain tumour.

He died at home nine days ago. A funeral service will be held at 2pm on Thursday, at Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, and will be followed by a private family burial at Bossall, near Malton.

Updated: 08:58 Monday, May 01, 2006