Nicola’s filled her Will with hope

Nicola, an artist from Oxfordshire, is offering hope to future generations by leaving a gift to The Brain Tumour Charity in her Will. Nicola made this powerful decision after tragically losing both her brother Stephen and husband David to the same brain tumour type, ten years apart.

Stephen’s diagnosis

A cruel twist of fate

In a cruel coincidence, ten years after losing Stephen, Nicola’s husband David received the same heart-breaking diagnosis.

“David had started to drop things and tripped on steps a few times. We put it down to him getting clumsy at first.

Then one day when we were due to go to some friends’ for dinner, he decided to make a loaf of break to take – he was a great cook. I’ll never forget how he’d been mixing the dough, and suddenly dropped the bowl and it just went all over the floor. And I said, “What on earth are you doing?” He said, “I don’t know what’s happening to me, but I’ve got something wrong in my head. I’ve either got a brain tumour, I’ve got Parkinson’s, or I’ve had a stroke.”

He made an appointment to see the doctor in a couple of days, and we went out to dinner as planned. But during the meal he suddenly couldn’t stand and looked as though he was drunk. It was a really awful thing to watch.

We ended up going to the emergency department at the John Radcliffe hospital for a scan, only to be told the gut wrenching words, “We’ve found a little glioblastoma.””

Nicola and David remained hopeful, assuming that treatments would have progressed in the past ten years. They were shocked to learn that this was not the case. David underwent very similar treatment to Stephen, at the same hospital and even with some of the same staff.

It makes me so angry that things haven’t improved over the years. I just find it so shocking that cancer research has moved on in leaps and bounds, but not for brain tumours. A glioblastoma diagnosis shouldn’t mean the end.

“David faced his diagnosis with courage and humour, even entertaining the surgical team during his seven-hour awake brain surgery. He was determined that he would survive.”

But tragically, David passed away almost one year later in 2019.

Hope for the future

Now, Nicola is determined to help make sure that fewer families will have to face the same heartbreak that she’s had to endure twice. Nicola is offering hope to future generations by leaving a gift in her Will to The Brain Tumour Charity.

---

---