Hello, for those who don’t know me, my name is Stephen, a 46 year old proud dad from Sheffield. Thank you for taking the time to read my story....

As if being diagnosed in 2011 with a brain tumour and having my 1st surgery in 2012 which left me permanantly disabled wasn’t shocking enough, I was devasted in July last year to find out from my latest MRI that it had shown signs of regrowth.

A year ago on October 15th 2018 I underwent a 2nd surgery, this time an awake craniotomy, where the surgeon removed what he could of the tumour and this was sent off for a biopsy.

A week later I received a phone call, asking me to come in the next day, and although I was prepared for the possibility of cancer, nothing can truly prepare you, so when the consultant explained to me that my tumour had changed from a benign stage 2, into a malignant stage 3 and confirmed I had cancer, I felt like my whole world had all of sudden started crumbling.

My wife and I had our 1st baby in January 2018 a year ago, he’s called Jago, and when we put him to bed later that evening we just sat there in silence, eventually both breaking down in tears.

The NHS have already treated my tumour with a 6 week course of Radiotherapy which i started just before Christmas and 9 months of Chemotherapy, so all in all my treatment plan will be ongoing for nearly a year, my final treatment is planned for next week 23rd October as my platelets and white blood cells have eventually almost been depleted.

The reality is I want to stay as I am for as long as possible, sharing and making memories with my beautiful family, and not be further compromised by any long term side effects that the Radiotherapy could potentially do.

I used to be a self employed hair stylist with a career of 22 years behind me, now due to my permanent disability I work in Admin for the NHS, and although my employers have been very understanding of my situation, I couldn’t afford to be off work and have ongoing treatment, especially as my wife has been back at work since the beginning of last December, and i have been a stay at home Dad for over a year, which i have thoroughly enjoyed albeit under different circumstances. Going through my treatment and looking after a baby has been very hard work at times, but seeing him grow and develop has just about got me through.

Thankyou for taking time to read my story, and love and light to you all,

Stephen, Emma and Jago XXX