'Cycling naked is nothing compared to tumour pain'

"I would happily go cycle naked around the capital 100 times in a row than go through having my brain tumour again."

Those are the words of Stephen Lewis, who will take on the World Naked Bike Ride in London with his partner on 14 June.

The couple from Newark in Nottinghamshire will be raising money for the mental health charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) because of their struggles after Mr Lewis's diagnosis and treatment of a brain tumour.

The 38-year-old, who works as a train driver, says he had his work and life upended by the cholesterol granuloma between his brain and eye socket, and still deals with the aftermath two years later.

"When I first had symptoms I wasn't overly sort of bothered by them," Mr Lewis said.

He had started to experience double vision in 2023 and saw an optician, who assured him it was normal for someone his age.

But after feeling that something was not right in his body, he sought out an MRI scan which revealed the tumour.

"I remember the room turning into like this tunnel, and Shayne was sat to my left, and I completely shut down.

"He was asking all the right questions, but I remember at that point, I sort of went into this self-preservation mode, and because of the nature of it no-one truly knew how to operate."

After visiting hospitals in Nottingham, Sheffield, and Lincoln, a surgeon in Leicester figured out how to proceed with the removal, Mr Lewis said.

He was told the tumour might be cancerous, and there was no way of knowing until it would have been taken out.

Mr Lewis said that was when doctors told him to consider writing his will.

It turned out the tumour between his eye socket and brain was a cholesterol granuloma, which is a type of benign cyst.

Despite the successful removal, the ordeal left Mr Lewis feeling at his "lowest" afterwards.

"I held myself up strong the whole time, being strong for everyone else as well because it upsets so many family members, especially my mum," he said.

"Perhaps after it all, because I had done that so hard, maybe my brain was mentally exhausted from it, and I finally felt the true nature of what I went through."

He feared the tumour would stop him from working as a train driver, which had been his "goal in life".

Despite his recovery progress, he can currently only work up to three days a week because of his medication, although he said this should be only temporary.

It was one of his partner's friends who invited the pair to take part in the World Naked Bike Ride to commemorate the overcoming of the health scare.

"I thought, not a chance," Mr Lewis recalls of his initial reaction.

"Then I sat on it and thought, you know what, if I could go through what I went through with my brain tumour, then I can do anything.

"I figured as well, because of the impact that all this has had on my mental health, I'd like to sort of strip away the stigma."

He said there were lingering elements of the railway industry being "male-oriented", which made it important to encourage people to talk about their mental health.

"I thought by doing this bold move, it'll gain people's interest, and it has really," he said.

"It's raised a lot of conversations, certainly with colleagues, talking about their own mental health stories, so in my eyes it's really worked."

The route of the World Naked Bike Ride will see the pair cycle through some of London's busiest areas.

Cyclists from across the world will depart on 14 June from various points in London, with Mr Lewis and his partner setting off from Regents Park at 14:50 BST.

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