A father has been heartbreakingly given 12 months to live after a “throbbing pain” in his head turned into brain cancer.
Mark Downey, 45, suffered an excruciating headache while driving with his family on holiday to Wales in September 2023.
The driver of the HGV, from Bolton, went to A&E after painkillers didn’t help, but left after having to wait 17 hours to see a doctor.
After visiting his GP at home, who referred him for an MRI, he was eventually diagnosed with glioblastoma, a fast-growing type of brain tumor that can have a life expectancy of only 12 to 18 months from diagnosis.
Feeling “too strong” to give up, Downey and his partner of 23 years, Samantha Scott, 39, are now raising money to fund private treatment.
Mark Downey, 45, from Bolton, Manchester, pictured with his partner Samantha Scott, 39, suffered an excruciating headache while driving with his family to a holiday in Wales in September 2023.
Two days before his family holiday in Kinmel Bay, North Wales, Mr Downey noticed he had a headache but didn’t think much of it.
He knew something wasn’t right when he experienced a “shooting pain” on the right side of his head while driving with his family to Wales.
“The pain in my head was so acute that I tried to pull it to the other side because it felt like something was hitting against it,” he said.
“I took painkiller after painkiller and the headache just wouldn’t go away.”
The pain was so unbearable that it made the father of three sick.
Brain tumors can trigger personality changes, especially if they are located in the frontal lobe of the brain, which regulates personality and emotions. It can also cause communication problems, seizures, and fatigue.
Mr Downey was eventually diagnosed with glioblastoma, a type of fast-growing brain tumor that can have a life expectancy of only 12 to 18 months from diagnosis, and a biopsy revealed his tumor was 2.5cm wide.
On the first day of the family’s trip, he called 111 and was told to go to the emergency room.
But once at the hospital Mr Downey was told he would have to wait 17 hours to see a doctor.
Downey and Scott decided to take the risk and drive home, with their son set to start high school that Monday.
The next day, September 4, he went to see his GP and was immediately sent for a brain scan at Bolton Royal Hospital, which showed he had a bleed on his brain.
The next day he had an MRI which revealed he had a brain tumor.
At first, doctors didn’t realize the severity of the problem and thought it was a stage two brain tumor, Downey says.
But after an operation more than a month later, on October 21 at Salford Royal Hospital, a biopsy showed the tumor was already 2.5cm and she was diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma.
Around 2,500 Britons and 12,000 Americans are diagnosed with glioblastoma each year.
Key symptoms are headaches, seizures, nausea, drowsiness, vision problems and personality changes.
These are caused by the tumor increasing pressure inside the skull as it grows.
Surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are the standard treatments.
There can be a life expectancy of only 12 to 18 months from diagnosis of glioblastoma and in many cases it returns, even after being treated, according to The Brain Tumor Charity.
Mr Downey received 30 rounds of simultaneous chemoradiotherapy along with oral chemotherapy from October 27 to December 23, but the tumor grew back to 1.4cm.
In an effort to reduce it further, in January he began oral chemotherapy for one week a month over a six-month period.
Mrs. Scott, a sales assistant, fears it is “incurable” and says “nothing can be done.”
“Doctors say the only option is another chance for radiotherapy and chemotherapy through the NHS,” he added.
‘I don’t want to become too fragile when there might still be something I could do.
“I’m too strong and too well to even dream of giving up.”
Mr. Downey’s family created a GoFundMe page to raise funds for alternative treatments, including immunotherapy, which is not available on the NHS.
Immunotherapy works by stimulating the body’s natural immune system to destroy cancer cells.
Mr Downey, pictured with his partner Mrs Scott and their two children, Lucas Downey, 19, and Taylor Downey, 12, says he is “too strong and too good to even dream of giving up”.
Brain Tumor Research explains that researchers believe that a type of immune cell called T cells is a key component in defeating brain tumors.
However, this treatment is very expensive.
Currently the family have raised almost £5,000, but need more than £100,000.
“We’ve managed to raise some funds, but it’s nowhere near what we need,” Ms Scott said.
“The doctors told him that immunotherapy may not be beneficial for Mark and that it costs hundreds of thousands,” he added.
There are no immunotherapy treatments approved to treat brain tumors within the NHS, that is because there is no method that has been shown to have lasting success in enough patients, according to Brain Tumor Research.