UPDATE..

We did it!! Brilliant day. I'm so proud of Ben and Ollie. Poppy was so good aswell.

Thankyou so much everyone who took the time to donate, we really do appreciate it. Your all amazing ❤️❤️

STORY..

The Brain Tumour Charity is the world's leading brain tumour charity and the largest dedicated funder of research into brain tumours globally. Committed to saving and improving lives, we're moving further, faster to help every single person affected by a brain tumour.

Last year was truly one of the worst years our family has ever experienced starting with the loss of our baby and then the sudden loss of Ben's beautiful mum! But the moment that turned our lives upside down started in October when Ben had a violent (tonic- clonic) seizure in the middle of the night! He was taken to hospital and given a CT scan. This showed what the Dr's thought was fluid on his brain. He then received an MRI and the images were sent to Nottingham QMC for an MDT review. We were not given any information during this time as to why his scans were sent there, what an MDT was or which department this came under. All Burton hospitals consultants told us was "not to worry, you will hear from Nottingham in a couple of weeks"!!!! Our anxiety in them weeks was through the roof! When we finally received a letter for an appointment at a brain tumour clinic, we were devastated as you can imagine.

We went along to this appointment and met with the neurosurgeon who was shocked when we told him we are pretty much going into this blind. Burton should have explained why they sent the scans to QMC before Ben was discharged!

We were shown the scans and told Ben has what looks like a grade 2 glioma (benign tumour) that had probably been growing for the last 5-10 years and had grown to the size of a large potato! We were given 3 options. Watch and wait, biopsy or surgery. Straight away, Ben knew he wanted it out and after talking to all the family, he chose surgery. This was supposed to be done in January, but after a thorough and very intense 90 min MRI, and a second seizure, the decision was made to bring it forward to December. Unfortunately the neurosurgeon had seen from the scans that things had started turning and wanted to get it out ASAP!

Ben had his awake craniotomy, and it went amazingly well! The surgeon was scared that he would lose his ability to communicate properly, hence the awake brain surgery! When the surgeon called to say Ben did amazing, he still has his speech and he was able to get most of the tumour, I was over the moon. We were so scared that Ben wasn't going to make it through the surgery. This anxiety was heightened as we had found out 6 days after Ben's 1st seizure that I was finally pregnant again!

Because of Ben's scans, he was made to drink what they call the "pink" drink. This makes any malignant cells floress pink. Unfortunately Ben had some pink cells and after biopsy, the results came back as grade 4 glioblastoma, a particularly nasty bastard of a tumour!! Luckily the surgeon was able to get all the malignant cells so Ben's diagnosis is a secondary cancer.

Following surgery, Ben received 30 rounds of chemo radiotherapy and has completed 5 out of 6 cycles of chemotherapy. The team at Derby are being very aggressive with the remaining tumour in the hope they can stabilise it for as long as possible.

Throughout all of this, he supported me through my pregnancy and birth of Poppy and been an amazing dad to Ollie. He really is the best!!  

On the 25th March, Me, Ollie and Poppy will be taking part in The Brain Tumour Charity 10k twilight walk around London to raise money towards finding a cure for this awful disease. I can honestly say that Ben is the strongest  and bravest man I have ever met. He is my rock and I don't want to lose him so the least I can do is my bit to help find a cure!

 We do not want any sympathy. We have been positive throughout all of this and still remain positive but Ben didn't have any symptoms. His seizure happened out of blue. But some people do get symptoms. So if you are suffering any of these symptoms, severe headaches/migraines, blurred vision, memory loss, speech changes, balance issues, changes in personality, or you are noticing some of these in a loved one, please go and see your GP and tell them you want to be referred for an MRI!

Thankyou for taking the time to read. Sorry its a long one. If you are able, it would be much appreciated if you could make a donation. It doesn't matter how small, it's all appreciated. Thankyou ❤️