Honouring shelby and family during this difficult time

Liam recently lost his battle, fighting Stage 4 cancer in his mediastinum (throat), lungs + brain.

One of Liam’s many wishes were to educate people further on this horrible disease. If you could read the following it would mean so much, however it is a fair amount of information.

If you do not wish to read all of the below please scroll through to the next section..

Background information on Liam’s battle:

Liam (21) was the most humble and selfless young guy. He had only a year to go until he would have finished his apprenticeship. He was always so confident and willing to fight anything and help anyone. More worried about his fiancé than he ever was even when he was battling something so rare and terrifying.

In early April Liam decided to do one of the many things he enjoyed. He loved keeping fit and went for a 15km jog in preparation for a upcoming marathon. He began coughing up large amounts blood and went to investigate it further with his GP. This was only the start of the tough road ahead.

Following a few tests it showed that his HCG (pregnancy hormone) was well over 1000 (men should be below 2). A CT scan confirmed he had a lump, so they investigated further.

Liam was delivered the devastating news he had choriocarcinoma nonseminomatous germ cell tumor. There are two types, seminomatous (affects 25-45yo males) and nonseminomatous (affects young men in late teens - early 20’s). Germ cell tumors are rare cancer in itself, formed in the gonads before birth. He was given a 70% chance he could beat it however, this is a disease doctors are still yet to cure.

Liam underwent 4 long months of intensive chemo (5 days a week). This assisted in shrinking his tumors on his mediastinum and his lungs.

During his two week recovery period post chemo treatment he was suffering intense headaches and nothing was able to subside his symptoms. Another CT scan was done and results reflected that the tumors had metastasised to his brain. He had not just one but three tumors on his brain. He had one (2.5cm) on his occipital lobe (controls vision) and two at the front of his brain.

This made his case extremely rare. His doctors said that there is a 50% he could be cured.

He underwent more rounds of chemo and additionally radiation to tackle this. He was connected to chemo for upto 22 hours at times.

The doctors collected 4 million stem cells. This was part of the plan for him to undergo a stem cell transplant (bone marrow transplant).The aim was to replace all the unhealthy/ damaged cells with healthy cells that they had collected from him. They aimed to do two stem cell transplants. Requiring high doses of chemo a few days before to completely wipe out his immune system. The doctors explained that with this method it was a 30% chance he would be cured, 10% chance of passing from sepsis or 10% of him being disabled. If Liam chose not to fight he was given 0% chance to be cured and 6 months to live. Without a second thought he wanted to keep on fighting.

It was Tuesday morning, 27th August his chemo pre stem cell was scheduled for the Friday 30th August. Liam and his fiancé Shelby, were getting in the car Liam began to notice his hand was cramping up which was followed by a seizure. This lasted 1.20 seconds, he was then unconscious for 20 minutes and had no recollection of what had just happened. Results concluded he had a minor brain bleed from one of the tumors at the front of his brain (where he had radiation).

He was able to start chemo for pre stem cell transplant on the Saturday and was ongoing for 10hrs through his central Hickmans line. He began to feel nauseous around dinner which was a side affect of the chemo knocking his immune system. We let him rest and went home.

The next morning his family were visiting him on his second day of chemo. He stated that his headache began to get worse. He was in and out of consciousness and the hospital team ordered a emergency CT scan. It concluded the tumor in the back of his brain had a drastic bleed. He came back from the scan unconscious and in that time the family were presented with the most difficult and heart breaking decision to make.

Liam was palliated and for comfort cares. He had family and friends visit. His parents, fiancé, her parents and his closest friends were next to him right up until his last breath in the early hours of Monday morning.

His passing wasn’t related to the cancer or chemo, it was the significant brain bleed on his occipital lobe.

The purpose of this go fund me:

To come together and provide the family with as much support as we can. Myself and a few others created this to educate and provide a space where people can support the families during this extremely unimaginable time. The family would never ask for anything like this while grieving but we hope to relieve a bit of the financial stress.

Due to his passing being declared as sudden and unexpected there are additional costs and processes that his fiancé has to go through.

Any money raised will help go towards this and supporting the family with all costs associated.

We hope that we are able surprise his fiancé and family with any funds received from this.

We don’t have any expectation for people to donate however you are more than welcome to if you knew him or would like to.

Our one wish would be to share this and hopefully reach more people with the intentions of educating others. Losing a loved one is terrifying let alone your soulmate. They still had so much they were yet to achieve together.

If you wish to understand more he created a public page on Instagram @liamscancerjourney

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, on behalf of Liam’s friends and family.