A father began experiencing symptoms that aligned with a brain tumor in 2010. He went to visit his local GP but was told it was probably just stress. But, the symptoms worsened, and a scan revealed the sad truth.
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53-year-old Stephen Blakeston found that his speech had become jumbled, and he was experiencing headaches and distress. His daughter looked back on the beginnings of his brain tumor. "In October 2010, Mum called me saying he was jumbling up his sentences and not making any sense. He also had a massive headache and was really distressed, which wasn't like him at all."
So, he took himself to the GP but was dismissed. They told him that it was probably just to do with stress. According to his daughter, they even told him he was faking it. But, the symptoms persisted, and he decided he needed a CT scan to check for a brain tumor.
The CT confirmed their worst fears. "It was a CT scan at Hull Royal Infirmary that showed he wasn't faking anything. The scan found a tumor growing on the left side of his brain, affecting his speech. his daughter recalled. "He had surgery the next week, which was successful, but the biopsy confirmed our worst fear - it was incurable and cancerous."
Dad's Brain Tumor Caused A Fatal Blood Clot
The father underwent one round of intensive radiotherapy and two rounds of chemotherapy. It halted the growth of the tumor, and he was apparently in good spirits. However, complications caused by the chemotherapy caused a blood clot to travel to his heart.
In 2011, the blood clot caused Stephen to collapse. He made it to his daughter's bedroom, where he fell to the floor. "We called an ambulance, but unfortunately, paramedics couldn't save him, and they told us after about 20 minutes of fighting that he didn't make it, and he died on her bedroom floor."
The blood clot formed by the chemotherapy he had undergone for his brain tumor killed him. His daughter is now running the London marathon to raise money for Brain Tumor Research. She believes more needs to be done to combat brain cancer.
