My Brain Tumour journey

Team fundraiser

David Stubbs and Rachel Stubbs are organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Hi thank you for taking the time to look at my fundraising ambitions.

I’m a 43 years of age dad of four and married to a fantastic wife Rachel with whom I have a 9 year old son. I want to raise money for three fantastic brain tumour charities that have helped me and my family massively over the last 8 months.

My story also involves the dreaded CoVid-19 although I can say that I am one of the few people that can say that CoVid actually saved my life. I work in a highly stressful job and I had been suffering from headaches for a number of years.

Having spent my best efforts to avoid CoVid I tested positive in June 2021. I had no symptoms of CoVid at first. However, two days in I had what I can only describe as an explosion in my head. The pressure was horrendous and my head felt like it was in a vice. I couldn’t put my head down or rest as it was so bad.

This continued for a number of weeks and at this point I decided to contact my GP as I was concerned I may have long CoVid. At this point I had also lost strength in my right arm, I was unable to lift my arm up over my head and I was struggling to clench my fist.

My GP sent me for an urgent CT scan. I still had no idea that it was anything other than a complication of CoVid. The thought of a brain tumour never even crossed my mind.

The results of the scan came back two weeks later and I was devastated to discover I had a large brain tumour. The only treatment available to me was an emergency brain operation and that there were a lot of risks with the surgery.

This news was absolutely devastating and completely floored me. I had gone in a split second from a hard working guy with a whole future mapped out to realising very quickly that my life would never be the same again for me, or my family.

I had surgery in September 2021 and despite some complications it went well. During surgery they found the tumour had wrapped itself around the main vein in my brain and I had a substantial blood loss.

Sadly, as a result, it could not all be removed. However, the biopsy showed that it was a benign Meningoma and that other treatment options would now be available if the tumour begins to grow again.

I was told that I had had the tumour for between 10 - 14 years. I was also told that, due the tumour being wrapped around the vein, I was only months if not weeks away from collapsing so I am one of the very few people that can say CoVid saved me. If I had not caught CoVid I would have continued to ignore my symptoms.

I know I am in a very fortunate position and have been very lucky to get a second chance of life. I want to get the message out around my story to raise awareness so other people don’t ignore their symptoms and seek help and advice as early as possible from their GP’s.

I am determined to raise awareness of the dreadful disease that is a brain tumour, to encourage people to look out for symptoms and not to ignore them.

Looking back over the last 9 years a number of things now make sense to me and I realise I had been displaying symptoms for some time:

I had headaches a number of times a week. I felt tired but still struggled to sleep.
My personality changed as well. I became fixated on things like work. I was always working and had to get involved in everything and would flit from one thing to another.
I would often rant in emails.
I gained a large amount of weight and had problems with my vision.
I was initially diagnosed with type two diabetes. I had pins and needles in my thigh which I used to put down to nerve damage after being struck by motorcycle a couple of years ago.
My blood pressure was really high.

All this was put down to stress at work, poor health and poor work life balance.

All the above were symptoms of my tumour but they were all mistaken for other conditions. As the tumour continued to grow I had more symptoms as the tumour was slowly killing me.

The shock of being told I had a brain tumour was devasting. My whole life was torn apart in that split second. I had never felt so scared and helpless in my whole life.

I could not have got through the trauma of having a brain tumour without the wonderful support of three brain tumour charities. The three charities are -

Brain Tumour Support
The Brain Tumour Charity
Brain Tumour Research

I want to raise vital funds and my initial target is £3000 so that others can have the support these charities provide. Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer. Despite how lethal Brain Cancer is only 1% of all funding into cancer is spent on brain tumour research and it is charity that not only picks up the shortfall in Post Op NHS care but also funds the vital research.

I finally want to thank the brilliant Neuro team at the Royal Stoke Hospital for saving my life and all my friends, family and colleagues for their prayers and support.

My wife has agreed that as soon as the £3000 target is met she will shave her hair off to support “Wear a hat day” which is on 25th March 2022.

Thank you for taking time to read this and please give generously and support these vital charities.

Regards,

Dave