25.09.2017 - My father passed away yesterday. The tumour has eventually taken his life.

It has been a long 5 years and a half. The doctors said that, given the initial diagnosis, this is remarkable. However his life, and the life of those close to him, has gone through various levels of difficulty, and largely getting harder with time.

5 years and a half ago he let a toothbrush fall without realising, and nothing else. He decided to go to the hospital for checks, and his life changed completely. He received a surgery to remove most part of his brain tumour, close to the area controlling the motion. He was also told that essentially there was no hope and that it would eventually come back. Following that, he received a cycle of radiotherapy and then chemotherapy. For the first year or so after the surgery, he was getting tired quickly, however still able to do most of the things. He even joined me in Naples for a weekend and went to a holiday in Sardinia to the beach. Then, the tumour started to grow again. The doctors advised against another surgery, and some even against radiotherapy.
However, we were told of another hospital, farther away, who was willing to do more radiotherapy with a more focused beam, to reduce the side effects, that would impact on his movements even further. The radiotherapy was done, and this severely impacted the motion of his right arm. Then came the second cycle of radiotherapy, which was very long. In the meantime, his motion kept getting worse, getting weaker and weaker on the legs and eventually needing a wheelchair. The second radiotherapy side effects were far worse than the first's, with vomiting essentially all day. It was then that we took the difficult decision to end it. The nausea eventually finished, but the motion started to impact the legs severely and both arms, until he became almost incapable to move. Throughout all these years, there have been a variety of medicines, including anti-depressants, cortisone, and anti-epileptics. There were also a few episodes that required A&E.

Then, presumably with the tumour spreading throughout the brain, he started to have small difficulties with his speech. A month before my
wedding, he got a lung infection, and was immediately taken and kept in the hospital. At first, the oncologists said there was nothing to do, but he was then moved to palliative care, and the team there was able to heal him from the lung infection. He was not able to come to my wedding, but he was still alive, and could follow a live stream via skype from the hospital. However, the infection left him extremely weak.

In the last month, his speech got considerably worse. Then, he started to be drowsy, stopped eating and drinking, and eventually breathing.

I was just back from Scotland to see him alive for the last few hours.

Today, his type of brain tumour is a lost war. Some people who visited in the last two days said that "he eventually gave up". No, he did
not gave up. It's just that there is nothing he could do. Hopefully a cure will change in the future.

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We are running the Great Scottish Run 10k together on October 1st and want to take the opportunity to help fund research into brain tumors as Matteo's wonderful and beloved father is suffering from Grade 3 astrocytoma ('anaplastic astrocytoma') which is fast-growing cancer and often referred to as 'malignant'. These tumours often recur following treatment in a more advanced form i.e. grade 4 astrocytoma.
He has been bravely fighting for the last five years now and we want to mark this by spreading awareness and help funding more research into astrocytomas.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and read our JustGiving page.

Big Bussi,

Bea & Matteo

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