'Idol' winner David Cook's brother dies

LOS ANGELES, May 4 (UPI) -- Season 7 "American Idol" winner David Cook says his older brother Adam has died of cancer. He was 36.

"I actually lost my brother yesterday to a brain tumor, and I couldn't imagine being anywhere else right now," Cook told a crowd at Sunday's 12th annual Race for Hope 5K event in Washington, D.C. "I lost one today, but I gained 9,000 (friends), and I will be here every year that they will have me."

The elder Cook, a married attorney with children, died in Terre Haute, Ind., after battling brain cancer for 11 years, Usmagazine.com said.

The disease reportedly had also spread to his spine.

Cook was the honorary chairman of the Race for Hope 5K and his team raised more than $97,000 for the cause, his representative told the magazine.