Ian's Story

"5 years ago my husband, Ian, started passing out at work but there didn’t seem to be any pattern emerging as time moves forward. Sometimes he would just go vacant for a bit and other times he would have to sit down to stop himself passing out. We went to the GP and they started talking about his heart and after an ECG he was referred for a cardiology appointment. In our heart of hearts I think we both knew that it wasn’t a cardio issue. We had been through Ian’s son being diagnosed with a Brain Tumour 3 years earlier so knew some of the signs, although they weren’t the same symptoms. Before the cardiology appointment came through Ian had a massive seizure and ended up in hospital. To cut a long story short, he was then diagnosed with a Brain Tumour. He was referred to Southmead hospital but we were told by our local hospital that it didn’t look too sinister (whatever that is supposed to mean, it was a brain tumour!!). Our appointment at Southmead threw our family into turmoil. Ian had an Anaplastic Astrocytoma. They would operate and he could have radio and chemo but the prognosis was 2-5 years. The next year was another year of treatment. We had all been through this before with Ian’s son (who is fully recovered) but we all knew how hard it was going to be. But like you do we all supported each other through. We were told that they couldn’t remove all of the tumour and that it would come back at some point in the future.
We were lucky that Ian’s personality didn’t change massively following this first lot of treatment but he struggled with noise. In a house with 4 teenagers and 2 step children at times this was challenging. But we all adapted with Ian’s needs at the forefront of our minds.
There was no progression until January of 2022. He had another 6 months of chemo but we knew that was the last ditch attempt of keeping the progression at bay for as long as possibly. In August his last scan looked as if the chemo had done its job. Unfortunately by the first week of October his memory was fading and he was very confused. He went into hospital for an MRI scan and never came home. He deteriorated in front of our eyes on a daily basis and died within 3 weeks.
Our lives have been shattered but as a family again we pull together and support each other through this time.
This weekend will give us the opportunity to take some time out together. I really appreciate the support from the foundation as I have found that older teenagers and young people do seem to get a bit forgotten in this journey. Grief comes in many ways, shapes and forms but taking the time to talk and share is so important xxx"