Man with brain tumour hopes for treatment abroad

A man who was told he had at least a year to live after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour has said he still hopes to receive experimental treatment abroad.

Jack Rawding-Revell, from Glossop in Derbyshire, said he started with double vision earlier this year, and when his symptoms worsened, he was rushed to hospital and later given the diagnosis.

But the 25-year-old told the BBC he is exploring options for treatments which are not offered on the NHS but are in trial stages in the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Jack said: "There's life-prolonging medication out there, so why the hell would you not want to fight this."

Jack said his symptoms began back in February when he noticed he was experiencing double vision.

He went to the opticians and was prescribed prism glasses, which initially corrected the issue for a couple of months.

"I then started getting really fatigued and had headaches. I'd sleep for up to 14 hours a night and would wake up for work with massive headaches," Jack said.

With his symptoms getting worse, he realised something was definitely not right when he started vomiting constantly at work one day in June.

"I went to a Tameside hospital, pushed for a CT scan, then they rushed me over to Salford Royal Hospital because I thought I was on my last legs.

"They picked up there was a lesion and tumour, which was blocking my cerebral fluid causing pressure on my brain."

Jack, a refuse worker for High Peak Borough Council, was rushed to theatre and a biopsy was taken. A couple of weeks later, he was called in for the results.

He was told they had discovered an inoperable glioblastoma and that he had a year to 18 months to live.

But Jack said he "didn't accept it".

"I just thought 'this can't be it, surely?'" he added.

"I've spoken to people who've been on clinical trials out there, which I'm looking to go on, which are extending people's lives by years, so that's what I'm looking to do.

"In doing that, I'm hoping to advocate for it and try to bring it back here into the UK, and hopefully raise more awareness, raise more funding, hopefully prolong not just my life but also save other people's in the process."

Jack is looking at raising funds to try an emerging treatment which is in early trials in the Netherlands and Switzerland. He said the treatment could be "five to 10 times more potent".

"That's where I'm looking to go to, but, obviously, doing that I need funds... I don't know the exact amounts, but it's not just the medical costs, it's staying over there as well.

"I'll have to be there for two months while they monitor me and then I'll go back every month, then it'll go to three months, depending on how successful it is."

Despite the diagnosis, Jack said he was not going to let it consume him.

He has just finished a round of radiotherapy in Manchester in the hope of shrinking the tumour and prolonging his life.

Jack said he was also due to start a new drug trial in the UK, which has been recently approved.

On his diagnosis, he added: "I spoke to so many people about it and I think you can go one of two ways.

"If you just go into yourself, that will kill you off quicker than anything else... I think I'm better thinking about the fight and hopefully one day there will be a cure."

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