Entrepreneur and father-of-two Gavin was diagnosed with a glioblastoma in 2023 aged 44. Symptoms included headaches, episodes of confusion, changes in his eyesight and an unquenchable thirst at night-time. Despite his diagnosis and treatment, which includes taking part in a clinical trial, Gavin now 46, has managed to start two businesses. He is sharing his story to help raise awareness of the disease whilst fundraising to help find a cure for all types of brain tumours.
Gavin tells his story…
My symptoms started around June in 2023. I had a stressful job as founder of an automotive company called Autotech Group. I was travelling for work and wasn’t sleeping great and thought it was the combination of trying to run a business, the travel and being a dad. I felt tried all the time and had a lack of energy.
I began having vivid dreams, sometimes psychedelic and sometimes, distressingly dark.
I’d wake up in the morning completely parched and down several glasses of water, assuming I was dehydrated.
For someone who was used to sleeping very well, even when our children were small, it was something I wasn’t used to.
In mid-July, I started getting headaches. I’d never suffered with them, and the discomfort lasted for almost two weeks. It was a pain right in the middle of my head that paracetamol and ibuprofen couldn’t shift. My eyesight started to change, things became hard to read, and I would walk into a room and forget why. I found it hard to type text messages and emails and I forgot the names of colleagues I’d worked with for years.
I visited my GP and listed my ailments, also mentioning a throbbing in my lower leg which moved up the right side of my body when I was playing five-a-side-football one evening. She referred me for an MRI scan at Bedford Hospital, in the meantime I went on holiday to Crete with my family and decided to use the time to fully rest.
I was sitting on the beach, playing with the kids and I began feeling sick and really confused. I decided to go for a walk to clear my head and saw my wife, Kristie.
She asked if I was OK to which I couldn’t get any words out to reply. I stood there shaking my head and she thought I was having a stroke.
Straight away Kristie sat me down on a sunbed, I began having a seizure which caused me to swallow my tongue, my brother-in-law came to my rescue and saved me from choking. The seizure was so severe I broke my collarbone.
I remember waking up, trying to move from my laying down position to which I was told to stay before I was taken to a local hospital where I had a CT scan. Doctors confirmed they’d seen something on the scan, but it was too complex to treat there. I was transported to a bigger hospital where it was confirmed I had a lesion on my brain, potentially cancerous but I needed an operation to be sure.
Our holiday ended abruptly, and I was on the next flight home and straight to Bedford Hospital for more scans before a referral to Addenbrooke’s in Cambridgeshire.
In August 2023, I had an awake craniotomy. I spoke to the nurse as surgeons operated to debulk the tumour, I was answering maths questions and spelling words. Five-and-a-half hours later, it was confirmed the 3cm tumour was a grade 4 glioblastoma. The consultant shared their surprise I’d had such prominent warning signs considering the limited size of the tumour.
Kristie was with me when we got the news that people with this type of tumour typically survive just six to 18 months and I was encouraged to get my house in order.
I didn’t do a huge amount of searching about brain tumours before the appointment. I know there are more than 100 types of brain tumours which makes them notoriously difficult to find treatment for, so I didn’t think there was any point in winding myself up until I knew.
To be told that I had a high-grade tumour with a stark prognosis felt gutting. I’d walked into the appointment with Kristie and my parents, open-minded and within 10 minutes everything changed. I found myself half listening to the treatment plan and the other half focused on how much time I had left with the kids and the life and business I’d built for the last 20 years.
In December, I finished radiotherapy and had temozolomide (TMZ) chemotherapy. I looked at trials in Germany and USA which came at a huge expense. Money that no one should have to spend on overseas treatment.
I thought about it, but I couldn’t face being away from my family for long amounts of time.
I asked my consultant who told me about a European trial called ClinGlio and I was an ideal candidate as I fit the criteria. For over a year, I had to dilute a sachet of medication in water, three times a day. I had my bloods taken regularly and two-monthly MRI scans. The trial finished in January 2025 and throughout, my scans were stable. I later found out I was on the placebo which felt like a bummer. The consultant helped me reframe my thinking and said whatever I’d been doing, keep it up as my condition and the changes if any, were minor and the cavity left by removing the tumour seems to be decreasing and healing.
For now, I’m on a watch and wait and I’m monitored with scans every three months.
I’m still involved with Autotech, but now in a shareholder capacity and I’m proud that they have raised close to £40,000 for the charity and the partnership continues.
I do consultancy work in the automotive industry and have a property company which keeps me busy.
To mark the first anniversary of my surgery, In August 2024 I began my fundraising campaign with Brain Tumour Research. Two weeks after my operation, I took part in Walk of Hope and have rowed in the Dragon Boat Festival to raise money. This year, I’m running in my first ever marathon in Milton Keynes with a group of friends.
There are so many different factors when it comes to treating the disease there is no, one-size-fits-all. We need to invest in research into brain tumours, to allow personalised care for those facing their own diagnosis.
Gavin White
April 2025
One in three people in the UK knows someone affected by a brain tumour. This disease is indiscriminate; it can affect anyone at any age. What’s more, brain tumours continue to kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer yet, to date, just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease since records began in 2002.
Brain Tumour Research is determined to change this.
If you have been inspired by Gavin’s story, you may like to make a donation via www.braintumourresearch.org/donate or leave a gift in your will via www.braintumourresearch.org/legacy
Together we will find a cure.