A PARISH councillor who carried the jubilee flame through the Medway Towns during celebrations to mark the Queen’s 50 years on the throne is fighting for his life after being struck down by a brain infection while on holiday in Spain.

Peter Hicks has been in a coma and on life support since being found unconscious at a friend’s home two weeks ago.

Mr Hicks, 67, a Stoke parish councillor, and his wife Val, had been visiting friends in Alicante when he began complaining of a headache.

Doctors diagnosed a migraine, but three days later he was taken to hospital with suspected meningitis. Three brain scans revealed fluid on the brain and a life-threatening infection.

Mr Hicks is now in an isolation ward at Alicante General Hospital with his wife making the 52-mile journey from the villa every day to be by his side.

The couple were in Alicante to see friends, Val and Peter Wells, who moved from Stoke to Spain in 1993.

Mr Hicks is a familiar face at Rochester’s annual Sweeps Festival, where he performs with the Gundulph Morris Dancers.

Val Wells said: “Peter is a very active man. This has come as such a shock. There have been signs of life, but we just don’t know what is going to happen or how Peter will be if he wakes up.”