A father of three who was diagnosed with brain cancer and given just 15 months to live is celebrating a decade since his diagnosis.
Adam Blain, a former lawyer from London, has left doctors stumped 10 years after he was diagnosed with a glioblastoma (GBM) in May 2014.
Then 44, Adam suffered with headaches and an increase in the amount of saliva in his mouth which was initially put down to stress.
He had an operation to remove the tumour followed by gruelling radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment.
Adam, now 54, is registered disabled and lives with short term memory problems and has gone on to become a published author, writing two books: Pear Shaped and Grin and Pear It: A Most Unlikely Sequel which document his brain cancer journey.
He also suffers with facial agnosia (also known as prosopagnosia), a condition where he has difficulty recognising people's faces.
In April, the family hosted a party to mark a momentous milestone they never thought they would see.
Adam’s wife, Lucinda Melcher, 54, works as an oncologist at North Middlesex University Hospital. She said: “Adam has been able to watch his children grow up and celebrate birthdays we never thought he would. Still, doctors don’t know why. His own oncologist has acknowledged that Adam is her longest surviving patient, but they can’t tell us why or how.”
Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer. Yet, just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to brain tumours since records began in 2002.
Lucinda said: “Certainly in my job in treating bowel and prostate cancer patients, I have witnessed the advances in treating these forms of cancer which has been achieved through investment in research. However, the same investment into how brain tumours are treated has not happened at the same rate.”
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