Stephen Webb: Urgent appeal launched after dad and teacher diagnosed with 'aggressive' brain tumour
A Leicestershire teacher and dad-of-two has spoken of the "surreal" and "tough" situation he has found himself in after being diagnosed with a brain tumour. Stephen Webb spoke to LeicestershireLive as his family urgently tries to raise £150,000 to fund private treatment that could extend his life - if it is done soon.
Stephen, who describes himself as fit and healthy, was about to head out to a jiu jitsu class just over a month ago when he suffered a seizure in his living room. He was rushed to hospital, and an MRI scan later that night revealed he had a mass in his left temporal lobe. While several factors can influence the prognosis of brain cancer patients, according to Cancer Research UK the odds of surviving for one year or more are not heavily in their favour, at just over 40 per cent.
Stephen, from Burbage, near Hinckley, said: “I have started to be a realist. As soon as we did some research, you understand what this means.” He and his family, which includes children Noah, 11, and Scout, nine, and fiancée Cheryl, are now trying to raise £150,000 for private immunotherapy injections that could extend Stephen's life. In the meantime, Stephen will undergo brain surgery on Thursday (September 19) to remove as much of the mass as possible.
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The 40-year-old, who is co-head of English at Hastings High School, in Burbage, told LeicestershireLive the situation was “tough”. “It’s almost like a surreal moment, because you do not have this [planned].
"I am generally fit and healthy. I have two young children. I don’t have grown up children. I’m at an age where you don't expect it.
"I have reacted quite stoically. It’s really the effect on your young children and family. It’s your job to look after them and protect them from bad news, and this one - there is nothing I can do. That’s the tough bit.”
Stephen said that right up until his seizure struck, he had no symptoms. “I was getting ready to go to jiu jitsu on the 7th of August. It was 10 to seven in the evening, and I walked into the living room and something did not feel right.
“I wasn’t making any sense, and then I had a full blown seizure. My partner called the ambulance, which came very quickly and they took me to Coventry Hospital.
“After the seizure I was speaking English but my language wasn’t working. They were worried about that and thought I had a stroke.
“I had an MRI that night, which found I had a mass in my left temporal lobe. They looked elsewhere in my body, but it's just in my brain. They suggested that it's a very aggressive-looking tumour.”
Stephen's surgery on Thursday will be done while he is awake. He said: “The reason they want to do it while I am awake, they want to remove as much of the tumour as they can.
“They want to push the boundaries and have me speaking throughout. It’s quite a risky operation but it gives me the highest chance of removing as much as they possibly can."
Stephen will then undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He said that "unfortunately" for him, his type of cancer was "rare", and as a result, the technology to treat it "hasn’t advanced for 40 years", unlike that for other forms of cancer, such as skin cancer.
However, there is a treatment that could extend his life - an immunotherapy injection, which he found while researching the topic and then asked his consultants if it would be viable for him.
Stephen said: “They take as much of the [removed] tumour as they can get their hands on. They synthesise this immunotherapy vaccine and they give an injection and send you off home.
"You might as well throw everything at it. This isn’t going to cure it, but it adds time to your life. It adds months on to your life. They are really pushing for this one day to be on the NHS, but they are saying it might be a couple of years."
Stephen said the removed tumour tissue would be used to synthesise as many doses of immunotherapy as possible, with three being the “critical starting point”. The cost of the private treatment is £150,000 - the amount the family is hoping to raise via a Gofundme appeal set up by Stephen's sister-in-law.
If the funding target is met, the treatment will take place under neurosurgeon Professor Keyoumars Ashkan at King’s College Hospital in London.
Stephen said: “When he said that number - £150,000 - we do not have access to that, but it's a tantalising amount, it's enough where it's a do-able amount. I was quite reluctant to do [the fund-raising appeal] in the first place, but my sister-in-law is a force of nature and got the Gofundme started."
Despite the sense that raising £150,000 might just be achievable, Stephen said the task to raise the money nonetheless “seemed impossible”, when the fund-raiser was launched on Friday, September 13. So far, more than £80,000 has been raised towards the target.
"I couldn’t believe it," said Stephen of the support the appeal has already gained. "I thought it would get five grand.”
He added: “The local community in Burbage has been amazing. My school has been incredible. I have had so many people contact me and say very kind things about me." He said that some of the messages he had received had “brought tears” to his eyes.
He said: “I need to be able to raise the funds for this relatively quickly because they need access to my tumour after my operation. The window is small.”
To view the page for Stephen’s fundraiser click here.
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