Dale bowes

DALES STORY

Dale Bowes is an intelligent, caring and loved 28 year old man who has been bravely fighting Synovial Sarcoma since being diagnosed for the first time in 2003, the second time in 2021 and this third and final time in 2022. Dale is the oldest son of Corin and Danny and older brother to Cane and Crista, who has lived at home with for his entire life. Dale aspired to become a Geography Teacher and to help others battling serious illnesses through social media and appearances on Steph’s Packed Lunch. Dales journey of life has been a fight from the start. Growing up, Dale was a happy, lively and extroverted child who loved to play pranks and take leadership roles within his friend groups. Dale has always been inquisitive and had a passion for learning new things in great detail.

Spending more time at home, Dale found his passion for education, constantly wanting to play teacher with his siblings. He became invested in geography and weather patterns as well as politics. Dale worked hard in school and achieved amazing grades, allowing him to get into University to study geography with the aim of becoming a geography teacher. Dale began this course through the open university whilst he continued to work full time as a teaching assistant at St Marys. For his final year, Dale wanted to make friends and be more social so he chose to attend York St John University whilst continuing to live at home with his family in Leeds. Unfortunately This stopped due to covid restrictions, leading him to do university from home again. Dale worked hard and managed to gain his degree, allowing him be accepted for his SCITT training to become a teacher. After being accepted into his first school Dale prepared to begin his new challenge in September 2021. Unfortunately, at the end of August 2021 Dale wet to A&E for what he thought was a bad chest infection. After having a scan we were told he had a mass in his left lung and his lung needed to be drained. Dale then became ill in the night and had to have 4 blood transfusions. The lung drain allowed doctors to spot an infection as well as some internal bleeding that they were unsure where it was coming from. A few days after, Dale was taken into surgery to stop an internal bleed and we were warned he may not wake up. After surgery, dale was transferred to ICU in critical condition after surgeons discovered a hole in his heart sheath and the bottom of his left lung disintegrated, meaning they had to remove the bottom half of his left lung. Post surgery, his left lung collapsed leading to him being placed on a ventilator and oxygen. Miraculously, Dale started to recover and managed to be moved to a ward where he would find out his Sarcoma had returned. After 2 weeks in hospital, dale returned home with a drain in his lung. Awaiting results, dale began his SCITT part time whilst he regained his strength, with the hopes of returning full time. In November 2021, Dale was placed on 12 week intensive course of chemotherapy to remove any remaining cells from his lung bleed. At this time, he began sharing his journey on TikTOK to help others, after having to defer his SCITT for a year whilst he gets treatment. After finishing chemotherapy, Dale attended his University graduation after worrying he may be too unwell to attend. Dale spent the next few months recovering and finally gained the amazing news on the 30th of May 2022 that the surgery and chemo had worked and he was cancer free.

On June 29th 2022, Dale returned to A&E coughing up blood and had to have further test and scans. On July 10th, it was confirmed that Dales cancer had returned and he had also caught an infection that had gone threw his heart. Dale had to begin chemotherapy for a seccond time and continued to share his story online. During this time, Dale was placed on palative care with St Gemmas and we were told the devistating news that his cancer was incurable in August 2022. Dale stayed positive, focusing on the fact medical miracals do exist and continued to fight and receive chemotherapy 4 days a week in hospital. In november 2022 Dale was informed of an experimental t-cell immunotherapy trial at the St Christie Trust in Manchester which may be able to help him. Dale currently had 7 tumours and matched all of the criteria for the trial and would begin treatment in 2023. During this period, Dale began spreading his story more and managed to appear as a lunch mate multiple times on Steph’s Packed Lunch, even managing to speak on major topics, such as assisted dying, which gave him even more drive to fight his cancer. Dale continued with chemo to keep his tumours from growing and prevent more nerve pain whilst he had various tests and scans to allow him to begin his trial. Dale began the trial on the 19th of June 2023 and was admitted into hospital for a month. After the T-cells were admitted, Dale contracted Cytokine Release Syndrome(CRS) which caused him to be very unwell, confused and began hallucinating. After a few weeks Dale started to feel and look much healthier and began some physio to strengthen his legs again before coming home on the 6th of July, earlier than expected. After his first scan, Dales tumours showed an incredible reduction and everything was going well. In October 2023 Dale started feeling pain again. A four weekly scan showed that some of his tumours had started to grow again but others were shrinking. Dale was then offered a second trial which he may be eligible for. Dale consented to this trial and began tests to see if his was eligible. Devastatingly, Dale had already had the maximum dose of a chemotherapy used in the trial and was not eligible.

By November 2023, Dale was experiencing a lot of pain again from his cancer growing. There was also a tumour growing around a blood vessel causing more problems for Dale. To prevent further issues or pain, Dale started chemo again in December 2023 where he wore a chemo bag at home for 24 hours once a week for 3 weeks which made him very unwell. Dale returned to hospital on January 30th with difficulty breathing and his whole body had become inflated. He was placed on the High Dependency Unit (HDU) to have stents to remove blockages in his chest and heart. Dale still remained hopeful, sharing his journey online as much a he could. Dale returned home once the blockages had been dealt with and continued to try lead a normal life doing the thing he loved, such as ghost hunting, whilst he had radiotherapy.

In March 2024, we got the news we had been dreading. There were no more treatment options for Dale as he had become too unwell. Dale was transferred to the care of St Gemma’s Hospice and returned home. Within a week, Dale was placed on an oxygen machine at home. Dale continued to get worse until he was admitted into St Gemma’s Hospice on the 25th of March 2024 for end of life care. Dale continues to fight despite all of the odds and is an inspiration to us all.