When Matthew Collins started suffering with really painful headaches in June this year, he thought very little of it. As they persisted, he visited his GP where he was given strong pain killers and advised to get an eye test.
He visited an optician on one Friday afternoon and was told there was no problem that they could spot so 35-year-old Matt planned to go back to the GP on Monday. But on Sunday evening he collapsed at home and was rushed to hospital. He had experienced a seizure. After Matt stabilised at hospital he was sent home but within hours he was rushed back by his parents having had another seizure. He said: “My mam thought I was dead.”
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Matt, from Aberdare, was treated at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil for four days in the intensive care unit where he was given drugs to treat the seizures. He underwent a CT scan, which doctors at the time said was clear. He was discharged and told he had been put on an urgent list for an MRI scan but when chasing this up a week later he discovered he had been put on a non-urgent waiting list and could expect to wait 10-12 months to be seen.
For Matt, that was too long, and he went about organising a private appointment. However, while at the Green Man music festival in August, Matt experienced a stroke. He said: “I felt really really weird and clumsy. When I bent down to put my shoes on I would lose my balance. I put it down to the side effects of my epilepsy medication. On the Monday when I arrived home, I woke up and I couldn’t move my arm and leg.”
Matt called his GP and was told to go to the hospital. It was discovered that he had experienced a “medium-sized brain bleed”, in other words a haemorrhagic stroke. He was kept in hospital and described how over the next few days he got progressively worse. He said: “I was taken for an MRI, and what was a medium-sized stroke was now a very large stroke. It had grown quite a dramatic amount in a few days.”
He was told nothing had caused it, there was “no brain aneurysm and no brain tumour”. He was moved to Llwynypia Hospital in Rhondda for stroke rehabilitation and started to feel much better. He was discharged and was carrying on at home as normal then the headaches returned at the beginning of September
Matt decided to go back to A&E, he spoke to his stroke nurse who said it was likely a side effect of the stroke. In A&E he was offered a scan, just to reassure him. And that is when the most devastating news emerged: “I was given a CT scan where they then found a 4cm by 4cm brain tumour in the right frontal lobe of my head. They told me I would only have two to three months to live.”
The tumour was removed at the beginning of October, and Matt was told it was a glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer. Matt is currently undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment. He has been told it is guaranteed the tumour will return in the next year and doctors can’t predict if they will be able to remove it again.
Matt said: “If only I had that MRI in June. I just keep thinking all this could have been avoided. I have always had anxiety and depression and things like that could have been caused by this tumour because of where it was in my brain. It could have been there for years. I am feeling OK with it (the treatment) at the moment but I have heard that it does get progressively worse. I am a season ticket holder for Wales football. I just want to feel OK to go and watch the Turkey v Wales game later this month.”
Upon his diagnosis, Matt penned a beautiful letter to his friends and family about what he has been through, you can read it here. Matt explained that even with his current treatment plan his prognosis leaves him with around a year or a year-and-a-half to live as the tumour will return and it is not known if it will be treatable the second time around: “It is a bit of a lottery, I just have to raise this money somehow.”
Matt is putting all his effort into fundraising for treatment that costs £250,000. The DcVax-L is an immunotherapy vaccine, which is currently being considered by NICE for NHS use. The trials it has gone through for treating people with glioblastomas have promising results, Matt explained, doubling survival rates, and in some cases where the person has been young, fit and healthy like Matt, prolonging their life by several years. But the cost is huge. Matt has already successfully raised £50,000 and if you would like to make a donation to support him, you can do so here.
Matt said: “It could give me a few more years with the people I want to have a few more years with. It is my main focus right now. The love and support of my family and friends has got me through the darkest period of my life. I’m also trying to find the positives in the situation: for example, I’ve witnessed kindness and generosity from strangers that I otherwise wouldn’t have, which has made me realise just how many lovely people there are around.
“Most people don’t know when they’re going to die, you just think it’s going to be sometime in the future, hopefully when you’re old. I’ve got more of an idea about when I’m going to die and it’s allowed me to really open up and tell the people I love how much I love and appreciate them, and to think about the things I’d like to do with the rest of my time. In a way, those things are a gift and I feel blessed in the most cursed of ways.
“Despite being quite a down person a lot of the time, I’ve always tried to find humour in situations. I had the stroke on a Monday and I was going to London to see my best mate Sean to watch The Strokes on that Friday. You can’t miss an opportunity to crack a joke there, can you?”
You can help Matt raise the money for his treatment here.
Sarah Carter is a health and wellness expert residing in the UK. With a background in healthcare, she offers evidence-based advice on fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, promoting healthier living for readers.
