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Chris was our ‘brave best friend’

16/ 4/2008

THE family of a teenager who died less than a year after being diagnosed with a brain tumour have paid tribute to their ‘brave, brilliant best friend’.

Christopher Simm, 18, lost his nine-month fight against a stem tumour.

The youngster, whose parents Anthony and Tracy said he ‘loved the gym’, had previously been fit and healthy. Tracy, 42, of Chellow Dene, Mossley, said he was working at a packing plant and wanted to become a bricklayer or an electrician.

He noticed something was wrong when he began struggling to walk and slurring his words — and a brain scan revealed the problem.

"He was shocked and upset at the diagnosis, but determined to beat it," she said. "Every morning, I’d say ‘what are you doing today?’ and he’d raise a fist as if to say ‘I’m fighting’."

Despite treatment at the Christie Hospital, Christopher’s condition deteriorated after Christmas.

"He had some really good weeks and there was always hope," said Tracy, a beauty therapist. But then he had a bad turn and was quite poorly. Even so, he kept fighting to the end."

Tracy said that Chris, a former Saddleworth School pupil, was a popular lad.

"We’ve had loads of messages from school friends saying he used to look out for them," she said. It’s been overwhelming."

Dad Anthony, 49, who works for an engineering company, said Chris lived his short life to the full and he felt he had lost his best friend."We shared a lot of similar interests and used to do lots of things together," he said.

One of Chris’s two older sisters, Laura 23, told of his sense of humour. And this also shone through when he wrote an account of his illness in a booklet to raise money for Christie’s, which brought in £700.

In it, he revealed that after meeting his hero, boxer Amir Khan, his impressed mum told his sister he ‘would make a good son-in-law’.