A DAD who thought his headaches were down to having 'Christmas flu' and work-related stress was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour.
Adam Chapman, of Worcester, started suffering from headaches six months after his wedding day in December 2022.
The 43-year-old, who runs his own business, thought the pain was due to work-related stress, tiredness and the back end of having flu over the festive period.
But he was left devastated after being diagnosed with a high-grade glioblastoma (GBM) when he was rushed to hospital in February last year.
Mr Chapman has undergone two operations, the most recent being last month, as well as months of gruelling radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
His memory, cognition and sight have also all been "severely impacted" after he suffered a stroke during his initial 12-hour surgery.
Mr Chapman, who used to train in the gym five days a week and competed in 10k assault course races before his diagnosis, said: “I put the headaches down to work related stress, tiredness, and the tail end of the Christmas flu.
"My thoughts were blurred and things didn’t seem to make sense; I was slowly starting to lose control of my brain and body.
“People appear to think that because I’ve had surgery and chemotherapy and I’m at home now, I must be ok.
"They don’t understand that my tumour will continually come back for the rest of my now limited life, and that all we are doing with treatments is delaying the cancer to give me as long as possible.
“Without the priceless support of friends and family, who have been living this nightmare with me, things would have been even tougher.”
Mr Chapman is now working alongside Brain Tumour Research and calling for the government to follow through on a 2018 promise to invest £40million into research.
He added: “It is so frustrating that the government have not yet invested the money they said they would, and that just 1 per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to the disease since records began in 2002.
"It’s so important to raise awareness of brain cancer; it’s very misunderstood in comparison to other forms.
"People do not seem to grasp the fact that there is no cure.”
Hugh Adams, spokesperson for Brain Tumour Research, said: “When £40 million was made available by the government for allocation to brain tumour researchers we didn’t consider for a moment that a full deployment of that amount wouldn’t happen.
“Six years later and only 25 per cent of that funding is actually in the hands of the scientists who hold the key to unlocking the uniquely complex puzzle that brain tumours pose.
“Our 2024 ‘It’s Time to do Things Differently’ manifesto is very clear that we want the government to work with Brain Tumour Research to develop a roadmap for full deployment of this money.
“Brain tumour patients do not have the luxury of time and any barriers to research funding must be identified and removed."
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