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3 hours ago Jayne McCubbin, BBC Breakfast and Lauren Hirst, North West Family handout Huw, pictured with his wife and their young son, has recently had his third brain surgery Huw McCandless dreams of seeing his three-year-old son celebrate his fifth birthday. The 39-year-old doctor was diagnosed with a brain tumour shortly after suffering a seizure while driving to a walk with his family on Boxing Day in 2019. Seven years later, the cancer has reached stage four.
"I have memories of my parents when I was three and four," said the GP from Disley in Cheshire. "I do remember them, so hopefully that is what's going to help Jacob. "The longer I stay, the more memories he'll have of me." Family handout Huw wants to help build a case for better brain cancer funding in the UK Huw allowed BBC Breakfast to film his third round of brain surgery in a bid to raise awareness of the disease and what he believes is a funding disparity with other cancers.
While his son Jacob is too young to understand what is going on, he is with his dad every step of the way. Huw wore socks with Jacob's smiling face on as he made his way to Salford Royal Hospital in Greater Manchester for his latest operation. "It's a very traumatic event but it's something that I will go through again to try and get as much of my future in my life for myself, my son, my family - that's why I'm doing it," he said.
The surgery took place while Huw was awake. Dr Joseph Sebastian, consultant neuroanaesthetist, said: "The safest way of actually taking the tumour out is to have Huw awake, naming objects and moving so that we know that his critical areas of the brain are not damaged." While Huw moved and spoke, the surgeon mapped out the brain to identify the critical areas. Where a tumour is close to these critical areas the surgeon will avoid that section.
Huw's answers to the questions posed in a series of flashcards shown during the operation are a vital part of the surgery Huw's step-father Andrew Russell said: "It is a heck of a procedure and in many ways it doesn't really bear thinking about the practicality of it all, but Huw is just incredibly upbeat." Prof Pietro D'Urso removed the sample so that it could be sent to Germany to build personalised immunotherapy treatment - something which is not available on the NHS. Although brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and young adults in the UK, only about 1% of cancer research funding is devoted to them, according to the Brain Tumour Research charity. Clinicians and scientists in the field are expected to send an open letter to the government to outline how investment has not kept pace with the scale of the challenge.
Huw has undergone three different surgeries since his diagnosis seven years ago Huw wants to help build a case for further funding in the UK - if not for him, then perhaps for his son's generation. The family also has a crowdfunding appeal to raise money for the treatment in Germany and to help secure Jacob's future for when his dad is no longer physically with him. They have recently sold the family home and will move out in three weeks' time.
"When you are at the stage you've got a choice of how to live your life now and you've chosen to live it with hope so I will do everything that I possibly can," Huw said. Related stories
Source: BBC
