Colchester Evening Gazette health reporter Jeremy Price has won a special commendation in a national journalism contest for writing about his own experience of treatment for a brain tumour.

Jeremy, (31), was up with the national media when he made it into the last four in the prestigious Medical Journalism Awards.

He wrote a journal in the Gazette last year while he was having a course of radiotherapy.

During his six weeks of treatment, Jeremy wrote about things he’d been through, how he was feeling and what effects the radiotherapy was having on him.

He even roped colleagues and friends into having their heads shaved in sympathy when he lost his hair, raising more than £3,000 for The Brain and Spine Foundation and Essex County Hospital, where he was treated.

He sent in the complete journals for the awards and was shortlisted for the consumer feature category.

In that section, Jeremy was the only regional paper writer among the finalists and was up against two writers for The Guardian – David Batty and Anne Karpf, and Oliver Gillie who wrote for the Independent on Sunday.

The Norwich Union Healthcare-supported MJA for 2004 proved popular, with a high number of quality entries.

Jeremy said: “I didn’t really know what to expect when I sent my journals off for the awards, and when I found out who I was up against on the shortlist, I didn’t really fancy my chances.

“To get the commendation is absolutely fantastic. It’s brilliant to have something which I wrote to help other people recognised like this.”

Celia Hall, chairman of the judges and health editor of the Daily Telegraph, said: “None of us could put down this inspiring account of Jeremy’s journey with a brain tumour. This moving account reached out on many levels.”

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