On the 17th of May (grey month), Gary will reach 20 years of surviving, living with and fighting the beast within his head. Wind back 20 years, Gary presented with a Grand Mal seizure at 11.35pm on the 17th of May, 2004 whilst sleeping. As his wife, I performed mouth to mouth resuscitation as he stopped breathing, the beginning of our story.
Gary was diagnosed with an Oligodendroglioma Grade 3 on the left side of his brain, with an awake surgery within days highly successful.
Throughout the 20 years, Gary has been in and out of remission. Treatment options of oral and IV Chemotherapy and Radiation have been of an advantage as this type of tumour is sensitive to these. Throughout Covid (2021), Gary presented with his third seizure (2nd seizure was in 2014), four days before our daughter’s year 10 formal, the outcome of this was a second tumour within the same area of the brain. Accompanying this, Gary had also broken his back and left shoulder, a result of the enormity of his seizures. The fight gets harder, but never impossible.
The last 12 months have been our hardest yet, with Gary, last April (2023) falling over, anywhere and everywhere, with no prelude or warning. Three months on from this and our lives taking a significant twist, it was found that his tumour had travelled toward his Cerebellum. Today, Gary has just finished five cycles of IV Chemotherapy with nearly six months remission, just finding out last month (April 2024), some enhancement within the area, more treatment, here we come.
We have been under the care and close watch eye for 20 years now with the awesome Prof, Dr M. Back, Dr Helen Wheeler, and their irreplaceable teams, respectively. Throughout Gary’s journey, many people have coined him as; ‘lucky’. However, the words ‘brain cancer’ and ‘lucky’ to us, really don’t sit well. Gary has been fortunate in that treatment options have worked for most of the time, however, as one could maybe imagine, this 20 year stretch of in and out of remission has taken its toll, in all areas of Gary’s life, health and wellbeing.
As his wife, his carer, and as Mark Hughes termed us last year; ‘the warrior and his princess’, I, alongside our gorgeous daughter, continue to stand tall and fight hard for Gary, for he is the most humble, grounded and resilient human being ever placed on this planet in his girls’ eyes.
Written by Gary’s wife, Jodie.
