A man who visited the doctor for a seemingly routine headache complaint walked away with a warning he may live for just a few months.
Matthew Collins, 35, wasn’t initially suspicious when he started suffering from extremely painful headaches in June this year and brushed them off as a run-of-the-mill malady.
He visited his doctor looking for relief after they became increasingly persistent and was prescribed strong painkillers and an eye doctor appointment.
Again, opticians didn’t raise the alarm after a visit one Friday afternoon, leaving Mr Collins planning to return to his GP the following Monday.
But he never made it, as he collapsed and was rushed to hospital the night before.
Speaking to Wales Online, he said doctors at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil concluded he had experienced a seizure, and once he was stabilised, he was sent home.
He experienced a second seizure not long after arriving home and was returned to the hospital with his mum fearing he was dead.
Over the next few weeks, CT scans failed to discover any abnormalities, and he was placed on an urgent, then non-urgent waiting list for an MRI, leaving him waiting up to a year for an appointment.
He didn’t receive his much-needed MRI until he experienced a stroke that grew to become “very large”, but doctors still saw nothing wrong.
After feeling “much better” following stroke rehabilitation, the headaches returned, and then doctors made a devastating discovery.
Mr Collins said he visited A&E when the headaches returned, and doctors discovered a large tumour nestled in his frontal lobe.
He said: “I was given a CT scan where they then found a 4cm by 4cm brain tumour in the right frontal lobe of my head.
“They told me I would only have two to three months to live.”
He was told it was a glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain cancer, when the tumour was removed in October, and he has since received chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.
Mr Collins said the tumour is guaranteed to return in the next year and that doctors can’t predict whether they can remove it again.
He has put all his efforts towards raising £250,000 for the DCVax-L, an immunotherapy treatment that could raise his survival rate, and people can donate to his cause here.
