It started with a misspelt text message and ended with devastating news for a young couple’s life.
Dan Potts was texting last December when he suddenly realised his message made no sense.
Concerned, a trip to the GP saw him referred to the hospital – where he got the devastating news that he had a rare brain tumour and it was incurable.
One of only a handful of people diagnosed each year with this kind of tumour, and the life expectancy is between 12 and 18 months.
However, he and his wife Liah, 26, believe a misdiagnosis two years ago mean they are now living day-by-day and have decided to make every second count.
They are aiming to raise £42,000 to be split between St John’s Church in Keswick, where Dan’s funeral will be held, a brain tumour charity, Macmillan Cancer Relief and want to take a little bit so they can make a final memory together.
It’s not been an easy journey since the diagnosis for the pair, who live in Mockerkin, near Cockermouth.
Just before Dan was due to have his operation, Liah caught COVID. Then Dan had a seizure while he was at home and had to be rushed to hospital on December 22.
Liah said: “He spent the next seven days pretty much unconscious in intensive care and I was unable to visit him until my isolation was completed.
“At this point Dan has lost all speech ability and the control of his right arm.”
Dan, who is in his 40s, was finally well enough to have the operation to reduce swelling on his brain.
Liah said: “A very nervous five hours go by and then the neurosurgeon rings me to tell me the operation went well and Dan is in recovery.
“Not knowing what to expect, I head into visit Dan. He is awake and can speak maybe three words every now and again. The pressure was now reduced in his brain which allowed him to get small words out.
“There was no promise that speech would come back or the control of his right arm, but it was something to work on over time and see where things got to. From now on, Dan would have epilepsy, so was on anti-seizure medication.”
The following five weeks saw Dan make good progress with his arm and speech, and he was ready to undergo radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Liah said: “His epilepsy has got worse and the doctors are still trying to get his medication right.
“Once the initial radiotherapy and chemotherapy was completed, there was a month or so to try to let the swelling from treatment go down before the next stage started. One other anti-seizure medication was added so now Dan was on three types!
“The next stage is six months of a much higher dose of chemotherapy drugs. We are currently in the middle of as they keep delaying treatment due to low platelets.
“The seizures are still not fully under control and we are about to start a fourth anti-seizure medication to try combat them, or at least reduce the frequency and severity.
“Dan’s life is drastically short now but we hope if we manage to get on top of his symptoms and side effects of all of the medications, then we can manage to get a few more happy memories made together! We are both facing this head on and trying to be as positive as possible given the situation.”
