Hi, as some of you know my dad is only 52 years old, last August (2019) we had the awful news that he had  cancer, at this stage we did not know how bad or what situation we were heading into. 

My dad was under the ENT consultant at salisbury district hospital following a referral from his GP for a sore throat. The consultant took a look on the day of his appointment with a camera and told my dad that he believed my dad had cancer and a tumour in his oropharynx. A few days/week later he was in for a biopsy under a general anaesthetic to confirm if this tumour was cancerous as the consultant had suspected. Before this procedure my dad had a full CT and MRI scan with dye. 

A week later we had the results, it wasn’t great the consultants predictions were correct and my dad was diagnosed with HPV P16+ cancer. His care was transferred to Southampton general where we would find out how severe things were. 

We then met Dr Ram an amazing head and neck cancer consultant who took my dads case on, unfortunately my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer which was also in his lymph nodes. The consultant recommended radical chemo-radiotherapy  for 6 weeks, 5 days a week to target the tumour and in an ideal word KILL IT. The chance of this happening is 50/50. 

My dad then underwent treatment, he suffered awful side effects. He had a collapsed airway requiring inpatient stay in ICU, the tumour was swelling due to the radiation, causing this to obstruct his airway, my dad is a fighter and did not require a tracheotomy which was plan B if required. We had many more little bumps in the road as well as pain radiation to the side of my dads face - we were told this is the side effects of radiotherapy. 

My dads treatment was nearing the end, he had fought off infections, had a nasal feeding tube, needing steroids and adrenaline, pain relief , this treatment was not pleasant for him nor was it for us to watch. 

My dad was suffering pain in his head, they performed another MRI, this showed a shadow on my dads brain, we were told it wasn’t linked, however his left eye then closed and would not open and he had lost sensation to one side of his face, another MRI was performed, it was then we were told his cancer has spread and caused a brain tumour- this new tumour is inoperable due to where it has grown... they then suggested 5 days of radiotherapy to target this brain tumour. His consultant said in 25 years of working in oncology this is extremely rare and you don’t see cancer travel upwards especially towards the brain.

The last few weeks my dad then had another CT scan with contrast dye this would give us a diagnosis of what is exactly happening, we hoped and had everything crossed the brain tumour had shrunk and the neck tumour had been killed. 

It was on this day we found out some bittersweet news, the neck tumour is no longer there but the brain tumour has grown, not only that but the cancer has spread further, it’s now in both lungs and his liver although a small amount, it’s still spread. The bonus was it’s NOT in his bones, 

THIS IS WHERE I NEED YOUR HELP! 

The consultant has recommended a systemic treatment called immunotherapy. This particular treatment a drug called Nivolumab is VERY expensive costing thousands of pounds a month to receive, although we are not paying for this directly they have to submit a form to be approved, my dads age and resilience to fight cancer and have this treatment means he is eligible. I am asking for any donation big or small to give something back to these amazing people and the research they do.

Without the NHS, staff, Macmillan and cancer research UK we would not be in this position today to be able to keep fighting and hoping and praying this immunotherapy is successful at killing his cancer,.

52 is far too young, my dad has always given his everything to anyone he has met and would help anyone in need, he has a heart of gold, he also has his grandchildren to watch grow up and teach them all his wisdom and life stories. 

Any donation big or small would mean a lot to us as a family ❤️❤️ 

Thank you 

Lots of love Ellie & Marcy (his daughters) ❤️❤️

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