A HEARTBROKEN mum told how her son died after coming home from school with a headache and sent a chilling text.
Ethan Treharne, from Surrey, was just 15 when he returned from a Duke of Edinburgh trip and complained of having a headache.
His mother Nikki, 53, told how they assumed he was exhausted from the experience but their nightmare began just two days later.
She told SurreyLive: “I was at work when my husband called me to say not to worry but Ethan had messaged him from to school to say ‘Dad I need a doctor’s appointment, I can’t find my words and my face has dropped’.”
Ethan was rushed to A&E and within a few hours scans revealed the teen had a mass on his brain.
He was blue-lighted to Southampton for an emergency operation and diagnosed with a glioblastoma tumour, a very aggressive form of cancer.
The family were informed shortly after surgery Ethan’s tumor was incurable.
Nikki said: “We were blindly just going along with family life totally unaware that this deadly killer was lurking in his head.”
The brave schoolboy underwent three craniotomies, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
But Nikki slammed the care her son received and the treatments as “barbaric and exhausting”.
She said Ethan was experiencing daily seizures after undergoing radiotherapy, as well as the gruelling side effects of chemotherapy.
Steroids courses were “one of the worst drugs”, according to the mum, who said they made her son unrecognizable.
The family travelled to Germany to access more alternative treatments that weren’t available to Ethan in the UK because he was under 18.
Ethan tragically died when he was 17-years-old.
Nikki has since created a support group to help other families in grief called The Angel Mums, which also raises donations for brain cancer treatment and care in the UK
She said: “No parent will ever get over the loss of a child – it’s unfathomable.
“I often think when people say to me ‘I don’t know how you do it, I wouldn’t survive’, that I really don’t have a choice. I also have two other children that need me.
“You don’t survive either – the person I was before is gone. I am forever changed as Ethan is forever 17.”
Nikki and The Angel Mums are also trying to raise awareness around brain tumors.
They are the biggest killer of children and the under 40s, but “receive the lowest allocation of funding”, said Nikki.
The determined mum highlighted how treatment has remained the same for three decades but only has a 7% chance of working.
She compared the statistics in stark contrast to research and progress for breast and blood cancers.
Nikki warned: “We should be given the chance to save frozen tissue as standard during surgery as this is what is needed for immunotherapy.”
The Angel Mums fundraise for the Tessa Jowell Foundation through a JustGiving page.
The most common symptoms of a brain tumour
More than 12,000 Brits are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour every year — of which around half are cancerous — with 5,300 losing their lives.
The disease is the most deadly cancer in children and adults aged under 40, according to the Brain Tumour Charity.
Brain tumours reduce life expectancies by an average of 27 years, with just 12 per cent of adults surviving five years after diagnosis.
There are two main types, with non-cancerous benign tumours growing more slowly and being less likely to return after treatment.
Cancerous malignant brain tumours can either start in the brain or spread there from elsewhere in the body and are more likely to return.
Brain tumours can cause headaches, seizures, nausea, vomiting and memory problems, according to the NHS.
They can also lead to changes in personality weakness or paralysis on one side of the problem and problems with speech or vision.
The nine most common symptoms are:
- Headaches
- Seizures
- Feeling sick
- Being sick
- Memory problems
- Change in personality
- Weakness or paralysis on one side of the body
- Vision problems
- Speech problems
If you are suffering any of these symptoms, particularly a headache that feels different from the ones you normally get, you should visit your GP.
Source: NHS
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