A father with an incurable brain tumour has donated his tears to a pioneering study that could revolutionise how brain cancers are detected because he wants to “make a difference”.

Alex Davies was initially treated for epilepsy but months later scans revealed he had a brain tumour and was told he may only have 12 to 18 months to live.

The 49-year-old is now taking part in research at the Manchester Cancer Research Centre exploring if tear fluid can identify glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain tumour.

He is hoping the study will result in earlier diagnoses and ultimately save lives.

Mr Davies, from Lostock, Bolton, started suffering seizures in 2023 before later undergoing surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Follow-up scans initially showed no evidence of cancer but later tests discovered the tumour was growing back and he is now receiving palliative care at home.

Mr Davies, who worked at Network Rail before his diagnosis, said he was relatively fit with no health conditions when he “collapsed out of the blue”.

“It took months to get to my diagnosis and my initial MRI scan didn’t spot the tumour,” he said.

“My symptoms worsened over about three months including severe headaches, my speech became affected as well as my balance and I was getting confused.”

The father-of-two continued: “If helping with this research could mean someone like me can be diagnosed sooner, it offers real hope for the future.”

Mr Davies’ wife Emma said it was a “really horrible time for us”.

She said if a simple tear test could be used to bring a diagnosis forward it “would improve that awful time for so many others in the future”.

Thanks to nearly £500,000 funding from Stand Up To Cancer – a joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4 – the study led by scientists at the University of Manchester has expanded to include larger-scale trials.

Researchers have described the test as a “liquid biopsy” and said the “world-first approach” could pave the way for faster, cheaper and less invasive brain cancer diagnosis.

If successful, the test could be rolled out to GP surgeries which would allow patients to receive a diagnosis much earlier.

Prof Petra Hamerlik, who lost her father to glioblastoma at a young age, is leading the project.

She said the research had not previously been explored to diagnose brain cancer.

“My team is currently developing a tear-protein-based classifier that can differentiate brain cancer patients from healthy volunteers with high levels of accuracy,” she said.

“If successful, we’ll seek further funding to develop a tool that can be rapidly deployed across health services, ultimately helping patients like Alex receive a timely diagnosis and better outcomes.”

The FA Cup is one of the most well-known sports trophies in the world, seen by millions each football season and shown off by whichever team lifts it after the final.

But, 130 years ago, on a September night, the first incarnation of the cup was stolen and the identity of the criminals was a mystery for decades.

The story began when Aston Villa won the cup final in 1895, beating West Bromwich Albion 1-0, and returned to Birmingham with the trophy.

This first cup had been made for £20, by Sheffield-based silversmiths Martin, Hall & Co, and was known as the “little tin idol”, according to the National Football Museum (NFA).

Villa supporter William Shillcock, a local boot and ball maker, approached the club and asked if he could display the cup in his show window, so fans could see it up close.

But, after a couple of weeks on display, on the 11 September during the middle of the night, the burglars struck.

Finding the trophy gone and with police struggling to find the culprits, a reward of £10 was offered but without any luck – it was never seen again.

That outcome was not a good one for the winners of the cup final, Aston Villa – they were fined £25 by the Football Association (FA) as the prize was lost while it was in their care.

The stolen cup though needed replacing so a firm was sought to produce one.

The selected business, a Birmingham company which had connections to Villa, silversmiths Vaughtons, were commissioned to make the replacement.

The founder’s grandson, Howard Vaughton, had a close connection with the trophy, having won the FA Cup with Villa in 1887 and, by 1895, he was a partner in the firm, the NFA said.

Luckily, three years before, the company had taken a plaster cast of the trophy in order to make a miniature for Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The Birmingham-made FA Cup was used until 1910, when it was presented to the President of the FA, Lord Kinnaird and replaced with a trophy made in Bradford.

But what of the stolen cup?

Well, we spin the clock forward to the late 1950s and, in that decade, there came an admission over the theft of the original trophy.

A petty criminal from Birmingham, by then in his 80s, claimed he and two others had stolen the silverware and melted it down to make fake half-crown coins.

He even suggested some of the counterfeit money was spent at a pub run by former Aston Villa player Dennis Hodgetts, who had won the FA Cup with Villa in both 1895 and 1887, said the NFA.

The elderly criminal was said to have wanted to get the theft off his conscience – but his confession to a newspaper journalist could never be proved.