A cancer research fellowship in honour of campaigner and Irish Times columnist Charlie Fell was announced yesterday at University College Cork.

Fell wrote movingly about his battle with pancreatic cancer after being diagnosed in 2013 and he continued to push for more research into the disease until his death.

His brother John, who was present for the announcement at a major UCC conference on pancreatic cancer along with his mother, Gemma and Charlie’s wife, Ann, said the family were deeply moved.

“He campaigned relentlessly until his final days for more research into finding effective treatments for the death sentence that pancreatic cancer currently is,” he said, speaking at the Southern Symposium on Foregut Cancers in the university.

He added that the family was delighted to see so many international experts working together to fight the disease.

“This should bring hope to the patients and their families that pancreatic cancer may ultimately become a treatable disease,” he said.