"I love her for doing this," Lucy Chisholm said. "Because Christmas isn't going to be the same this year she wanted to cheer people up as they walk past.

"As a kid it must be amazing. The children are stopping all the time and going 'Oh my god'. They're loving it."

Proud sister Lucy is speaking about a home in St John's Grove, near Old Deer Park which surely must be one of the most festive in Richmond.

Hilary Chisholm has adorned her front garden with festive figures, Merry Christmas banners, a luminous snow globe and fairy lights.

Children can leave their letters for Father Christmas in Santa's Postbox.

The postbox is also a place for passers-by to leave donations to the Brain Tumour Research Campaign, a charitable cause close to the sisters' hearts.

Shortly before her 50th birthday Lucy was sent for an MRI scan by her doctor.

It revealed a tumour in her brain which took a 10-hour operation in Charing Cross Hospital's specialist neuro-oncology unit to remove.

"It was completely life-changing," she said. "My left side is very weak. My speech is different.

"There are lots of residual effects with having something the size of a tennis ball removed from your head."

Before her diagnosis

It can be a difficult disease to immediately pinpoint.

"For a few years I was tripping up just walking onto a pavement or I would get dizzy, but I put it down to normal life," Lucy said.

"But then it got worse and more often.

"In the three months before I was diagnosed I had no idea if I could make it up the stairs.

"I just didn't know what was causing it."

The Brain Tumour Research Campaign

Because of covid the charity's finances have "taken an absolute battering".

Not only does it fund research into the "gruelling" disease but it part-funded Lucy's treatment from consultant neurosurgeon Kevin O'Neill at Charing Cross.

Hilary has raised £570 for the research charity this month and the sisters have urged the public to give generously if they can.

Anyone can put a donation in Santa's Postbox or donate online on the charity's website.

"We would love to get more in there," Lucy said.

"Hilary is funding it all (the Christmas installations) so it would be really nice if people could pop some money in."

Living with the disease

Now 52, Lucy works in sales and marketing in the hospitality industry and lives in nearby Twickenham.

She sees brain tumour as something she will always live with and is reflective about her situation.

"I had one that I'm lucky enough to have had removed but most of them aren't or they grow back and it's just awful.

"The bottom line is it's an absolutely gruelling disease.

"I think to myself, I'm so lucky to be alive but then I think I can't be that lucky because I've still got the damn thing."

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