Written by Hannah-

Just 3 months ago our family had plans for the future. Then one day in late February 2019 my Dad (Russell Shreeves) had a funny turn, leading to a series of events that have turned our world upside down. He'd had a bad headache for around a week or so, he had a slight pain behind his left eye which caused it to flicker. Prior to this he was very fit a healthy, worked part time and a football fanatic. A trip to A & E showed nothing to worry about. A visit to the GP for bloods as a follow up, 3 days later showed nothing also!

Finally another trip to A & E after another funny turn 10 days later they decided to do a CT Scan after the family pushed for this. This showed a suspicious area on the frontal lobe of his brain. He had to then have an MRI scan as a matter of urgency. Two days later our worst fears were confirmed. Dad had 3 brain tumours. After many more CT scans and MRI's he was then referred to Addenbrookes to the specialist Neurosurgical team. They had seen all of his tests and decided that the best chance that Dad had was to have Neurosurgery to try and removed the 3 tumour and to establish whether they were primary or secondary cancer. After a gruelling 6 1/2 hours operation on April 12th 2019 it seemed like the longest day of our lives. Only four days in hospital Dad was sent home with over 30 staples on his scalp and we awaited the outcome of the biopsies taken. 

As Dad, Mum and I sat in the consulting room with the neurosurgeon, we received the most devastating news. His words were "I'm really sorry you to tell you that Russell you have a Grade 4 Brain Cancer -  a Glioblastoma. Incurable. Average life expectancy of months not years." Those words still echo in my head every waking moment. Now its 6 week radio and chemo, then its 6 cycles of chemo and wait and see.

Every week its blood tests reviews and then a scan after the first lot of chemo and radio to see if in fact it has been able to slow the growth down of this aggressive cancer. 

We had a meeting last Friday( 17th May 2019) where again as if the situation couldn't get any worse the last test we were waiting on was whether the cancer that is specific to Dad would be Methylated/ unmethylated.  Meaning responsive/ non responsive to chemo. Dad's cancer unfortunately is unmethylated. This means that even tho they are throwing everything at Dad the chemo only has 1% chance of working. 

My dad is probably not going to be there when my children grow up and go to university, get married and see all the wonderful times we would have shared. Mum and Dad will not get to go to Australia when they retired and have a Winnebago and travel as they had dreamed of doing. Our hope and dreams have been shattered. 

Through all of this we as a family are trying to remain as upbeat and positive as possible. Dad throughout this whole journey has kept his sense of humour, he is the strongest man I know and a role model for his grandchildren, he is and will always be my hero.

This cruel cancer is the most common and the most aggressive cancer in the age group 45-65. Yet it only receives 1% of the total money raised for cancer research,. It is my hope that although it will probably come too late for my dad, we as a family want to raise as much money as we can to help fund research into this deadly disease.

If money we raise can stop another person from having this devastating outcome like  dad and their family from going through what we are then that would be amazing. I hope and pray that one day there is a cure and I am alive to see it. 

Thank you for visiting our Just giving page to raise much need fund and awareness for Brain Tumour Research (Brain Cancer).