DEVASTATED parents who lost their only child just weeks after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour have spoken of their anger at the lack of research funding.
Robin Amess and his wife Wendy lost their son Oliver just 20 days after he was diagnosed with a high-grade brain tumour.
The fit and healthy 26-year-old from Droitwich had a sudden onset of headaches, blurred vision and experienced episodes of speaking nonsense.
Mr Amess said: “Oli was never a sick lad.
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"We can’t remember the last time he went to the GP. He never complained of being ill and would get on with things.
“When he came home a day early from staying over at his girlfriend’s house and told us he was apparently talking nonsense at the dinner table the evening before and had been vomiting all night, we knew something was wrong.”
He was rushed to hospital shortly after where they discovered he had a glioblastoma (GBM) growing on his brain stem.
He had emergency surgery at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire to drain the fluid build-up in his brain.
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The tumour’s location meant that removal of the mass was too risky and his body would not have coped with chemotherapy.
Oliver then developed a bacterial infection (MRSA).
“Time rocketed by. There were talks of Oli having a tracheotomy, but the time was never right as he wasn’t getting any better," Mr Amess said.
"At the end of the third week in the hospital, conversations with the surgeons and consultants became hopeless and there was nothing that could save our boy.”
Oliver died in hospital on January 28, 2022, with his parents by his side.
His 56-year-old father who works for Severn Trent Water, said he was angry that money seemed to be invested in other conditions and cancers, but brain tumours were at the bottom of the pile.
Robin and Wendy are now campaigning alongside the charity Brain Tumour Research to help reach 100,000 signatures on its petition to increase research funding to prompt a parliamentary debate.
The charity is calling on the Government to ring-fence £110 million of current and new funding to kick-start an increase in the national investment in brain tumour research to £35 million a year by 2028.
Click here to sign the petition.
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