A DAD put his headaches down to simple “Christmas flu” six months after his wedding day – but it turned out to be an incurable brain tumour.
Adam Chapman, 43, thought it might’ve also been work-related stress when he started getting headaches after December 2022.
Adam with daughter Georgia and wife Rachel
Adam having radiotherapy following the tragic diagnosis
Adam sports a strong surgery scar after going under the knife for the brain tumour
But he was left devastated after being diagnosed with high-grade glioblastoma – the most aggressive cancer originating from the brain – when he was rushed to hospital in February last year.
Adam has since been subjected to two operations, the most recent being last month, as well as months of gruelling radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
His memory, cognition and sight have also all been “severely impacted” after he suffered a stroke during his initial 12-hour surgery.
He said: “I put the headaches down to work related stress, tiredness, and the tail end of the Christmas flu.
“My thoughts were blurred and things didn’t seem to make sense; I was slowly starting to lose control of my brain and body.”
Adam, from Worcester, used to train in the gym five days a week and competed in 10k assault course races before his diagnosis.
But now he’s had to come to terms with the fact that he’ll deal the tumour for the rest of his “limited life”.
He said: “People appear to think that because I’ve had surgery and chemotherapy and I’m at home now, I must be OK.
“They don’t understand that my tumour will continually come back for the rest of my now limited life, and that all we are doing with treatments is delaying the cancer to give me as long as possible.
“Without the priceless support of friends and family, who have been living this nightmare with me, things would have been even tougher.”
Adam is now working alongside Brain Tumour Research and calling for the government to follow through on a 2018 promise to invest £40million into studying the horror disease.
Adam added: “It is so frustrating that the government have not yet invested the money they said they would, and that just 1 per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to the disease since records began in 2002.
“It’s so important to raise awareness of brain cancer – it’s very misunderstood in comparison to other forms.
“People do not seem to grasp the fact that there is no cure.”
Hugh Adams, spokesman for Brain Tumour Research, said: “When £40 million was made available by the government for allocation to brain tumour researchers we didn’t consider for a moment that a full deployment of that amount wouldn’t happen.
“Six years later and only 25 per cent of that funding is actually in the hands of the scientists who hold the key to unlocking the uniquely complex puzzle that brain tumours pose.
“Brain tumour patients do not have the luxury of time and any barriers to research funding must be identified and removed.
“If we do not do this then the shocking statistics surrounding this devastating disease will remain and, for all of us at Brain Tumour Research, that is just not acceptable.”
What is a high-grade glioblastoma (GBM)?
The dreaded glioblastoma is a fast-growing form of brain cancer, according to cancerresearchuk.org.
It’s the most common type of brain tumour in adults.
Surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are the main treatments that follow diagnosis – either on their own, or a combination of them.
Glioblastomas develop from glial cells, which are cells supporting the brain and spinal cord.
They are graded based on how quickly a doctor thinks they will grow.
The grade depends on how the cells look – the more abnormal they appear, the higher the grade.
Cancer Research UK says: “Around 32 out of every 100 primary brain tumours (around 32%) diagnosed in England between 1995 and 2017 were glioblastomas.”
Treatment for the tumour can keep it bay for some time.
But when it grows again, patients have to cop more surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Adam’s radiotherapy was combined with surgery
Adam’s brain scan after the terrible diagnosis
Adam with neurosurgeon Dr Soumya Mukherjee