Max Hall, a football-mad 14-year-old from Corby in Northamptonshire, was living a fit and active life when a sudden seizure in November 2025 changed everything. After more than a year of daily headaches that were repeatedly described as teenage migraines, Max collapsed at home and stopped breathing. He was rushed to hospital, where scans and a biopsy revealed an inoperable and terminal brain tumour covering most of the left side of his brain. Now undergoing treatment in Nottingham and exploring every possible option, including treatment abroad, Max and his family are doing everything they can while highlighting the urgent need for more research into high-grade brain tumours.
Here’s Max’s story, as told by his mum, Jackie…
Max is the kind of boy everyone loves. He’s the clown of the family, always cracking jokes and making people laugh. He lives and breathes football. If he’s not training or playing matches for his team in Northampton, he’s watching Manchester United on TV. Football is his world.
He’s also incredibly kind. At school, he’s known for helping children who struggle or have additional needs. He talks to everyone, looks out for others, and has a heart of gold. I know every parent says that about their child, but with Max, it really is true.
Looking back now, the signs were there, but none of us knew what they meant. For more than a year, Max suffered from migraines every single day. He was under a consultant at Kettering General Hospital, and we were repeatedly told they were teenage migraines. Because Max was so fit and healthy, no scans were ever offered. We trusted the doctors. We never imagined it could be anything more sinister.
Everything changed on the morning of 27th November 2025 when I walked into Max’s bedroom to find him having a focal seizure – his eyes were open, but he couldn’t speak or move. It was terrifying.
Within about 10 minutes, he went into a full-body seizure. Then he stopped breathing.
I remember being on the phone to the ambulance screaming that my son was having a stroke. I genuinely thought we were going to lose him. That moment is embedded in my memory, and it’s something I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of. Even now, Max has daily focal seizures, and the fear never leaves because I’m terrified he’ll have another full-body seizure and stop breathing again.
When we arrived at Kettering General Hospital, Max was intubated and put into an induced coma before being taken straight for a CT scan. We were told they could see something on the scan, but we were reassured it wasn’t a tumour and not a bleed on the brain. We were told it could be swelling from a viral infection.
Because Max needed paediatric intensive care, he was transferred to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham. It was there, after further investigation and an MRI scan, that we were told the truth – that Max had a tumour covering almost the entire left side of his brain.
There’s no way to describe how it feels as a mum to hear your child has a large brain tumour that’s inoperable and terminal. It’s immediate heartbreak. You’re crumbling inside, but you must still be strong.
Max spent two nights on life support in intensive care. Once he was able to breathe on his own, he was moved to a neurology ward. On 8th December, doctors performed a brain biopsy to find out more about the tumour.
The biopsy results showed a grade-4 diffuse glioma, a very aggressive and rare type of tumour most often occurring in children. We were told it isn’t a solid tumour but more like a spider’s web, growing into healthy brain cells. That’s why it can’t be operated on and why treatment options are so limited. We’ve been told that only around 33 children a year are diagnosed with this type of tumour. From that point on, Max’s life changed completely.
He is now extremely tired all the time and spends most of his day sleeping. He is generally in a wheelchair and doesn’t have much energy at all. His life at the moment is mainly his bedroom, the dining table, and then back to bed again. Yet through all of this, Max has never moaned.
From day one, he has handled everything like an absolute champion. He doesn’t complain about feeling unwell. Mentally, he is so strong. He often tells us: “Don’t worry Mum, I’m in the best place and we’re going to get through this.” In so many ways, he’s the one keeping us strong.
This month, Max began an intensive six-week course of daily radiotherapy at Nottingham City Hospital, alongside daily chemotherapy. Unfortunately, his liver reacted badly to what doctors believe was the chemotherapy, so it has had to be stopped for now. Radiotherapy continues, and once this phase is finished, doctors hope to restart chemotherapy cycles if Max is able to tolerate them.
We have also recently consented to full genomic sequencing of Max’s tumour, with blood samples taken in mid-January. This process involves breaking the tumour down and analysing it, DNA by DNA.
What doctors are hoping is that by understanding the exact genetic make-up of Max’s tumour, it may open up opportunities to different medications, targeted treatments, or clinical trials that wouldn’t otherwise be available. It will also contribute to research, helping doctors and scientists better understand how these tumours grow, what they react to, and what they don’t react to. We know it could also bring difficult news, but we felt it was important to do it – not just for Max, but for others in the future.
As parents, we can’t stop searching for options. We are currently exploring immunotherapy treatment in Germany, which isn’t available to children in the UK. It involves taking Max’s blood, identifying the cancer cells, and creating a vaccine from his own cells that is injected back into him to target the tumour while leaving healthy cells untouched. Max is provisionally due to travel on 24th February, shortly after finishing radiotherapy on 13th February, if he is well enough.
The treatment costs around £40,000 each time, largely due to travel and insurance. We have been completely blown away by the kindness and generosity of people who have supported Max. Without them, we wouldn’t even be able to consider travelling abroad for treatment.
The hardest part for me, as his mum, is not being able to fix him. All you want to do is make your child better, and you can’t. That feeling is crushing.
We haven’t told Max his prognosis. He’s so positive and always talks about his future – learning to drive, passing his test, and becoming a dad one day. We don’t want to dampen his spirit.
One day, Max told me his idea of a perfect day would be being able to get up, walk downstairs, have breakfast, and go for a walk in the park without having a seizure. For a 14-year-old boy to say that is heartbreaking.
If there’s one thing I want other parents to take from our story, it’s to trust your instincts. If something doesn’t feel right, push for answers. I wish I had pushed harder when Max’s headaches started.
Brain tumours are one of the biggest cancer killers, yet this disease receives some of the least funding. Treatments for aggressive tumours like Max’s have barely changed.
That’s why I’m very pleased to support the launch of the new Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at the University of Nottingham.
Knowing that research is focusing on aggressive, high-grade tumours like glioblastoma, including looking at recurrence and using advanced approaches such as AI, gives me invaluable hope. Even if it doesn’t help Max, it could help others in the future and will be a huge support for our vision to find a cure for this devastating disease.
Max is one of the nicest children you could ever meet. He inspires us every single day. All we want is more time – and the hope that research might one day change the outcome for families like ours.
Only through continued research and funding can we change the future, so no patients or families have to go through the heartbreaking journey we’re currently living.
Jackie Hall
February 2026
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 Max’s story, donate or leave a gift in your will via www.braintumourresearch.org/legacy www.braintumourresearch.org/donate or leave a gift in your will via www.braintumourresearch.org/legacy
Together we will find a cure.
