Our Brother’s Battle with Brain Cancer

We are sharing our Brother’s story to help raise awareness and to raise funds for Darren and his family in the hope to take away the financial burden and worry that has turned their world upside down...

On 20th July 2023, Darren suffered two seizures whilst asleep in bed with his wife and 1 year old Son. Paramedics came and he was rushed to St Helier Hospital where a CT scan showed an area of swelling on the brain, which they believed to be a cluster of lesions (tumours). Darren was admitted and put on a very high dose of steroids and anti-seizure meds. He spent 3 weeks in hospital which involved a series of tests (lumbar punctures, endoscopy, bloods) to find a diagnosis. Initially, they were looking for an infection or inflammation but all the tests came back clear and he was told he would need a biopsy which was then scheduled for the 29th August 2023 at St George’s Hospital. Darren of course, could now no longer continue working as a plumbing and heating engineer, for which he had his own successful business. He also couldn’t drive and wasn’t able to continue living his normal daily life. Kelly had taken a few weeks off work to support Darren, their 3 children and herself.

Darren was sent home the second week of August and during this time, he was experiencing serious behavioural changes, memory loss and personality disorder.

St Helier advised Darren to lower his steroids on 10th August 2023 which he did but sadly, 10 days later on 20th August 2023, he had a major seizure at our parent’s house in the garden. He was blue lighted to Kingston Hospital and by the time he arrived, he was on his 5th seizure. They said this was now a continuous seizure which he didn’t come out of so, he was put into an induced coma and straight into ITU. At this point, we didn’t know if Darren would even make it through the night. It was absolutely devastating. He was their sickest patient and we still at this point, didn’t have a diagnosis.

They managed to wake Darren up the following day but he was extremely confused, emotional and irate. Again, suffering all of the side effects and behaviour changes that these lesions were causing. After a very tough 3 days, he made a recovery from ITU and came home.

On 29th August 2023, Darren had his biopsy at St George’s Hospital and recovered well from the procedure. At this time, Darren also made the heartbreaking decision to liquidate his business.

On the 5th September 2023, our Darren was diagnosed with a very rare and very aggressive brain cancer - Primary CNS Lymphoma. His whole world, and ours fell apart in seconds. His wife, Kelly and two older children, Faith (17) and Daley (13), now had to try and process this news and live with the terrifying thought of what their Dad’s future holds. Darren had an appointment with his Oncologist at The Royal Marsden two days later and was told he would be admitted as an inpatient for 4 months on a very intense chemotherapy treatment called Matrix. It involved 4 rounds of the Matrix chemotherapy and then a stem cell transplant at the end which

we were told would give him the best chance of a durable remission. His oncologist’s words were always that they were treating Darren with a curitive intent.

Kelly went back to work, but as she is only part time, her income doesn’t cover the mortgage and all of the household bills as well as anything else that was thrown their way. She managed to get their mortgage frozen until April 2024 but will then need to start paying again.

Darren was admitted to The Royal Marsden in Sutton on 18th September 2023 and had another MRI and PET scan of his brain. This now showed three areas of clusters of lesions. Both frontal lobes and on the back of his brain near his neck. Darren was the first patient to enter into the Research programme for CNS Lymphoma and has always said from the start he wants to help as many people he possibly can. He began his first round of Matrix and handled this with so much courage and extreme bravery. He became very poorly when his white blood cell count was low and he was neutropenic which was to be expected of course, but it really took its toll on him as we’re sure you can imagine.

The second round came and Darren ended up with multiple urine infections and abscesses in his prostate which he had to have removed at The Royal Marsden in Chelsea. He was transferred there and during this week he also came down with sepsis and ended up doing a week in CCU.

Round 3 and 4 came with so much courage and bravery again. Darren is such a fighter and such a strong minded person. He managed to get home for Christmas and enjoy time with his family whilst preparing for his return to The Royal Marsden on 17th January for his stem cell transplant.

Darren had two MRI’s on 2nd January 2024 and a PET Scan on 8th January 2024.

On 11th January 2024, at his follow up appointment, he was told he was cancer free and to go and celebrate.

Darren went back in the Royal Marsden on 17th January 2024, on a high dose of chemo but sadly suffered another two seizures the very next day. An MRI the following day presented a new lesion on the Parietal Lobe, which has now been confirmed to be Lymphoma and has left us all with major worry. This just shows how quick and aggressive this disease really is! The stem cell transplant will go ahead and we will await a further MRI in a few weeks to see if he is in remission.

Before all of this heartache, our brother was just a fun, loving and normal hard working man. He has always worked so hard to provide for his wife and children and always looked forward to the weekends and enjoying their annual holiday together.

This happened suddenly and was so unexpected, to have so much taken away from him is just devastating. His business, driving, time away from his family and his independence.

We still don’t know what the future holds for Darren and this is why we just want to raise as much money as we can for him and his family so he can concentrate on trying to beat this cancer.

So if you could please give whatever you can to help them we would be forever grateful and we also ask if you could please share this page far and wide.

We can’t thank you enough for your time to read Darren’s story. We will of course keep this page updated regularly.

Lots of Love, Lorraine & Steph xx