A businessman who claimed using his mobile phone for six hours a day gave him brain cancer has died at the age of 44.
Ian Phillips spent his last months warning about the risks of long exposure to radiation from mobiles.
After going to hospital with a bad headache, he was given the devastating news he had a lemon-sized brain tumour – and has just three years to live.
Mr Phillips claimed his cancer was caused by excessive use of his mobile phone, as his job as an operations manager for a large firm required him to spend more than 100 hours a month making calls.
Speaking in February 2015, he said: ‘My ear would be red when I left work at the end of the day. I didn’t think what it was doing to my brain.’
As well as undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment in a bid to beat the cancer, he received alternative medicine, changed his diet, and regularly exercised.
In the months before his death he also launched a campaign to make others aware of the risks of using mobile phones, which he says are particularly dangerous for children.
Mr Phillips, a former rugby player, said: ‘I spent my working life on my mobile. I would have two -hour conference calls some days.’
Since his death, his family in Caerphilly, South Wales, have received hundreds of tributes to him from all over the world.
Mr Phillips raised thousands of pounds for a brain illness charity and was backed by Arsenal soccer star Aaron Ramsey and Wales rugby stars Jonathan Davies and Rhys Priestland.
His younger sister, Nicky, said: ‘Ian was an amazing person. It’s heartbreaking, but he was a real fighter and we are so proud of him.
‘We are all absolutely devastated but we are getting so much comfort from messages from people all over the world.’
Instead of giving flowers mourners at his funeral next Friday are asked to donate to the Brainstrust charity he supported.
Mr Phillips, head of healthcare diagnostic imaging for a large global firm, was hit by a sudden blinding headache and drove himself to A&E in the middle of the night.
He was given a brain scan on an MRI machine which he had installed himself just two weeks earlier at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff.
The scan revealed a Grade 3 brain tumour the size of a lemon and Mr Phillips underwent a nine-hour emergency operation to remove most of it.
But he was given the horrific news that the brain cancer could not be cured and was advised to make the most of the little time he had left.
Mr Phillips, from Cardiff, said: ‘I was devastated – the first thing I asked the doctors was what had caused it.
‘But I knew right from the start that it was due to my excessive use of my mobile – I was on it all the time.
‘I have spent a lot of time since researching this and the number of brain tumours is going up.
‘I am really concerned about young children using mobiles – their skulls are softer and radiation from these devices can reach their brains more easily.’
Mr Phillips invested in a shiny gold hand receiver which he plugs into his mobile to make and receive calls, meaning he doesn’t have to hold the phone to his ear.
He said: ‘I bought a gold one to draw attention to the potential dangers of mobiles.
‘Strangers ask me why I use a hand held receiver and I tell them they would too if they had been diagnosed with a brain tumour.
‘I tell people that I am convinced my cancer was caused by using my mobile up to six hours a day.
‘Even my doctors won’t argue with me when I tell them how much time I was spending on it at work.’
Mr Phillips estimated he was talking for more than 100 hours a month on his Blackberry – because of his high-pressure job.
He said: ‘I was a successful rugby player, extremely fit and I never got ill – not even with a cold. But now I have this.
‘The irony is that the tumour was discovered on one of the diagnostic machines that I installed at hospitals all over the country.
