Stuart Farrimond: trainee GP whose brain tumour diagnosis prompted a switch to science writing and presenting

Why do we get itchy noses when we eat certain foods? Which biscuits are best for dunking in tea? And what is the perfect ratio of strawberries to cream in a summer dessert? These were among the many questions that Stuart Farrimond set out to answer on television, in newspaper articles, and in a series of books that sold more than a million copies worldwide and were translated into 19 languages.

Farrimond had not long qualified as a doctor when he began to feel constantly exhausted. In 2008 he took a hormone test, which led to the incidental discovery of a grade 2 astrocytoma. “I had been feeling tired and thought it had something to do with hormones. I had a brain scan and it was then that I found out I had a brain tumour,” he told the Bath Chronicle a week after learning that his condition was incurable.

Although surgery was successful he was left with epilepsy and chronic fatigue, which meant leaving the profession he had so long aspired to join. “After training for years to be a doctor for …