Brain cancer treatment

Hello, my name is Conrad and I’m fundraising for treatment for my brain cancer.

I’m 47, live in south London, have three children between the ages of 10 and 13, and in May 2022 I was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumour.

I first started having problems with my language in May - suddenly I couldn’t speak very well, or read. I was initially diagnosed as having had a stroke, before the doctors found out the real cause of my problems.

The medical term for what I have is stage 4 glioblastoma. In layman’s terms that is the worst kind of brain tumour going: it’s highly aggressive and had already grown rapidly. I asked for a prognosis: six months without treatment. With treatment I had 12 to 18 months.

Since the diagnosis I have had brain surgery - during which I was awake - as well as radiotherapy and lots of chemotherapy. I can’t work as my speech or ability to read hasn't recovered. I’m up for any treatment going as long as there is good evidence for it, and I’m totally focussed on living as long as I can, for my kids and my wife, Dijana.

This is why I’m asking for your help: NHS treatment for brain cancer hasn’t changed much in decades. But hospitals in other countries are now offering newer treatments like immunotherapy to buy people like me more time, and there is good evidence these can work.

That’s why I’m asking for donations, to allow me to visit a genetic research clinic in Germany (CeGaT, website: https://www.cegat.com) that can tailor a bespoke treatment for me. The cost is around £100,000, which is beyond what we can raise alone.

The doctors will look at my tumour in detail to identify its specific genetic characteristics and then design a vaccine to target them. The idea - hopefully - is that the vaccine will tell my immune system to go to work and destroy the cancer, or at least slow it down. Dijana and I have spent days and days researching the various options, speaking to oncologists and people who have had success with the treatment and have decided this is my best shot.

Asking for all your help isn’t easy, but we can really do with your help. If I raise more money than I need, I will send the excess money to people in the same position as me, who need the same help against this devastating form of cancer.

Thank you for reading, my family, friends, colleagues, friends of friends and people I don’t know! I will be posting here about how the treatment is going - how it is hopefully working - and will keep you updated. One of the only good things about having this incredibly shitty form of cancer is that it brings into sharper focus the kindness of everyone who has heard about what we’re going through and is already helping out with their time, love and support. So thank you again, and keep your fingers crossed for me.