Tom Lawler
Sam vs Sid; The Battle Against Brain Tumours
Fundraising for Brain Tumour Research
Story
Hi everyone,
Thank you for visiting the justgiving page and listening to our story.
For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to run the London Marathon in 2020... we were wondering if it was a ridiculous thought until Brain Tumour Research got back in touch with us to say ‘they’d be honoured for us to run for them and we had been accepted!’ So from then on we started training.
Towards the end of 2019 we found out Sam was going to be kept on chemotherapy long term. On the positive side of things it means it’s working and keeping Sid from growing but unfortunately the chemo has a huge knock on effect with Sam’s energy levels which has caused several knock backs in training. We have decided that I will take on the Marathon for the both of us but still hope to raise just as much money for this fantastic charity!
I’ve shared Sam’s story below;
Apologies if you’ve heard it plenty of times before... blah blah blah... please feel free to skip ahead to the donating page 😉
In December 2017 I was taken in to hospital when my speech started making no sense. I was adamant it was a case of extreme exhaustion but was taken for a CT scan just to double check. Next thing I’m being admitted to the stroke ward, wait what?! On Christmas Eve I was taken down for an MRI scan and a few hours later I was taken in to the doctors room to be told it wasn’t a stroke ‘oh great!’ it was a brain tumour ‘Ohhhhh. Greatttt. 😒 Merry Christmas ya filthy animal!’
January came round and we were back and forth to Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital, finding out it was expected to be a grade ll tumour from what they could tell from the scans. I would be having awake surgery so they could check my speech, memory and face recognition as an fMRI scan showed Sid had chosen this area to move into.
6 months later I’m out of the 9 hour surgery, with 90-95% of him removed and no dramatic need to see a speech therapist! Woohoo! Massive thank you to the incredible Mr Plaha and the team. Only downside was that Sid was cancerous and hiding them parts from the scans, little shit! A grade lll anaplastic Astrocytoma (what a mouthful!)
Next stop... bridesmaid duties 5 days after surgery and then off to Tenerife! A week of relaxation and the massive fluid filled area drained itself out!! For anyone going from surgery to radio/chemo then a holiday definitely helps towards a speedy recovery!
Sorry, next medical stop; radiotherapy! 6 and a half weeks of it, which whizzed by and I was lucky enough to meet some of the loveliest people; staff and patients. A bit of tiredness, a dried out face and some big bald patches in my already prepared shaven head... I think I got off pretty damn lightly! 🙏🏼
And then... Paris! Oops another holiday! This time for my birthday and wait... what’s that? A ring! 💍 (Love you Tommy ❤️)
Sorryyyyyy! Got distracted again! Came home (yep, engaged 🙉), went and had some eggs grown, removed, made in to embryos (All through our incredible NHS), then cracked on with chemo!
1 year complete and Sid has had no growth HA! So we are staying on it long term 💪🏼
So basically; Tom is running for Brain Tumour Research because they are doing some incredible work and looking into ways of fighting off these horrid little things that seem to think it’s okay to just pop up in our brains! 🖕🏽
Me, and lots of other fighters, plan on sticking around a hell of a lot longer than the expected amount so it’s reallllly important we keep charity’s such as Brain Tumour Research going! Only 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to Brain Tumours! Even though more children and adults under 40 die from a brain tumour than any other cancer and 40% of all other cancers now spread to the brain. So the more money we raise for them, the quicker it helps them to discover new ways of fighting it off!
Less than 20% of those diagnosed with brain tumours survive beyond 5 years and with a ‘grade 3 Anaplastic astrocytoma’ I am supposedly not in that 20%... though I’m determined to not let that happen!
If you made it this far then a massive THANK YOU for listening to my story! Please donate whatever you can to help spur Tom on across that finish line! Any donations no matter what size will be huuuugely appreciated!! ❤️
We’ll be running plenty of events in the line up to raise as much money as possible so if you’d like to get involved by baking a cake, donating a raffle prize, selling raffle tickets, joining in with a pub quiz, playing football or anything else then please get in touch with us at samandtom1990@gmail.com
Thank you for visiting the justgiving page and listening to our story.
For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to run the London Marathon in 2020... we were wondering if it was a ridiculous thought until Brain Tumour Research got back in touch with us to say ‘they’d be honoured for us to run for them and we had been accepted!’ So from then on we started training.
Towards the end of 2019 we found out Sam was going to be kept on chemotherapy long term. On the positive side of things it means it’s working and keeping Sid from growing but unfortunately the chemo has a huge knock on effect with Sam’s energy levels which has caused several knock backs in training. We have decided that I will take on the Marathon for the both of us but still hope to raise just as much money for this fantastic charity!
I’ve shared Sam’s story below;
Apologies if you’ve heard it plenty of times before... blah blah blah... please feel free to skip ahead to the donating page 😉
In December 2017 I was taken in to hospital when my speech started making no sense. I was adamant it was a case of extreme exhaustion but was taken for a CT scan just to double check. Next thing I’m being admitted to the stroke ward, wait what?! On Christmas Eve I was taken down for an MRI scan and a few hours later I was taken in to the doctors room to be told it wasn’t a stroke ‘oh great!’ it was a brain tumour ‘Ohhhhh. Greatttt. 😒 Merry Christmas ya filthy animal!’
January came round and we were back and forth to Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital, finding out it was expected to be a grade ll tumour from what they could tell from the scans. I would be having awake surgery so they could check my speech, memory and face recognition as an fMRI scan showed Sid had chosen this area to move into.
6 months later I’m out of the 9 hour surgery, with 90-95% of him removed and no dramatic need to see a speech therapist! Woohoo! Massive thank you to the incredible Mr Plaha and the team. Only downside was that Sid was cancerous and hiding them parts from the scans, little shit! A grade lll anaplastic Astrocytoma (what a mouthful!)
Next stop... bridesmaid duties 5 days after surgery and then off to Tenerife! A week of relaxation and the massive fluid filled area drained itself out!! For anyone going from surgery to radio/chemo then a holiday definitely helps towards a speedy recovery!
Sorry, next medical stop; radiotherapy! 6 and a half weeks of it, which whizzed by and I was lucky enough to meet some of the loveliest people; staff and patients. A bit of tiredness, a dried out face and some big bald patches in my already prepared shaven head... I think I got off pretty damn lightly! 🙏🏼
And then... Paris! Oops another holiday! This time for my birthday and wait... what’s that? A ring! 💍 (Love you Tommy ❤️)
Sorryyyyyy! Got distracted again! Came home (yep, engaged 🙉), went and had some eggs grown, removed, made in to embryos (All through our incredible NHS), then cracked on with chemo!
1 year complete and Sid has had no growth HA! So we are staying on it long term 💪🏼
So basically; Tom is running for Brain Tumour Research because they are doing some incredible work and looking into ways of fighting off these horrid little things that seem to think it’s okay to just pop up in our brains! 🖕🏽
Me, and lots of other fighters, plan on sticking around a hell of a lot longer than the expected amount so it’s reallllly important we keep charity’s such as Brain Tumour Research going! Only 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to Brain Tumours! Even though more children and adults under 40 die from a brain tumour than any other cancer and 40% of all other cancers now spread to the brain. So the more money we raise for them, the quicker it helps them to discover new ways of fighting it off!
Less than 20% of those diagnosed with brain tumours survive beyond 5 years and with a ‘grade 3 Anaplastic astrocytoma’ I am supposedly not in that 20%... though I’m determined to not let that happen!
If you made it this far then a massive THANK YOU for listening to my story! Please donate whatever you can to help spur Tom on across that finish line! Any donations no matter what size will be huuuugely appreciated!! ❤️
We’ll be running plenty of events in the line up to raise as much money as possible so if you’d like to get involved by baking a cake, donating a raffle prize, selling raffle tickets, joining in with a pub quiz, playing football or anything else then please get in touch with us at samandtom1990@gmail.com