Why did he die? asks mother of cancer-victim pilot, 25

It rapidly progressed through his body into his bones, forming tumours which wrapped around his ribs and spine.

The young student had a hip replacement when he was 24 and lived his last months in unbearable pain. He died just 14 months after being diagnosed.

His mother yesterday paid tribute to her son's bravery. Sally Moore, 54, said: "Ben was a good guy, kind and considerate, and he was never angry about being ill.

"Liver cancer is a cancer you find in older people who have been drinking their whole lives. But he was only 25 and he'd never been a drinker.

"It seems completely unfair. We still don't know why my son had it."

Mr Moore, from Daviot, Inverness, first started complaining of a sore hip in March last year. He was studying at Oxford Aviation Academy to become an airline pilot and saw a doctor there who told him it was probably a soft tissue injury. He was put on a waiting list for physiotherapy but the pain kept getting worse. By the time the student returned to his home in June he could barely walk. His mother had to ask for crutches from her local hospital for him to use.

Worried, she contacted doctors in Oxford, who took him in for tests and found he had cancer in his hip bone.

The cancer was secondary though - it took more weeks and CT and MRI scans to reveal it had spread from his liver.

He had three one-week cycles of chemotherapy in hospital followed by three months more chemotherapy at home.

But the cancer was still spreading and his hips were so weak they were in danger of breaking and Mr Moore was forced to undergo a double hip replacement.

Mr Moore, who had studied aeronautic engineering in Swindon and civil engineering in Edinburgh before deciding to become a pilot, was taken into the Highland Hospice in Inverness on 1 September. His mother moved in with him, as did dad Martin, 56, and brothers Stephen, 24, and Luke, 20.

Luke missed the start of the third year of his Dundee University biology degree to be by his side.

Mr Moore succumbed to his cancer in the middle of the night on 13 September.

His mother said: "I was in his room dozing but I was aware of his breathing all the time. It was like when he was a baby and I would listen to his breathing to see he was alright.

"Then his breathing changed and I called a nurse. I held his hand as he took his last breath."

Mr Moore will be buried on 22 September at Daviot Church after a traditional funeral. It is around the time he should have finished his 18-month flying course.

His mother has no doubt he would have been a brilliant pilot.She said: "He had brilliant leadership skills, I think he would have been very good.

"He was a lovely lovely son and brother and he has left a big gap in our family."