A man with a headache from a 'hangover' was later diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. Mark Brandish initially laughed off the pain in his head as a sign he was unable to "handle his gin" any more.
However his condition deteriorated rapidly after he first complained of a headache in April 2021. In early June doctors found the 52-year-old had glioblastoma.
The illness is the same condition The Wanted singer Tom Parker, who sadly died earlier this year aged 33, was diagnosed with. Mark's wife Felicity said the diagnosis also followed unusual personality changes, North Wales Live reports.
She said: "Literally a month before his diagnosis, Mark was running up a really steep local hill and telling me how he was as fit as a 22-year-old according to his watch. He's always been quite active so it's unbelievable that within the space of a month he went downhill so rapidly.
"He started with a headache on a Saturday in April. We both just laughed it off as him getting on a bit and not being able to handle his gin anymore. He still had the headache which lasted all of the following week."
Mark, from Flintshire in North Wales, had hoped the problem would fix itself in time. It was even suggested he may be suffering with a migraine when he went for his Covid-19 vaccine, until more concerning signs started to appear.
Felicity said: "By now, he'd started to go through personality changes. Just odd things that were out of character for him. One night he stayed up until 4am on his PlayStation. That's not normal behaviour as, by 11pm we're usually knackered and off to bed."
The mum-of-three said her concerns grew as her husband would sometimes stop talking mid-sentence. After a call to the doctors she went with Mark to A&E, where a CT scan revealed a tumour.
In the months that followed, Mark underwent a course of radiotherapy and is currently receiving chemotherapy. The family now want to help fund research to find a cure for this disease that Felicity says "takes people from us far too soon".
The couple - avid runners for years - were due to take part in the upcoming Chester Half Marathon in May after signing up when spots first opened up.. Felicity and a team of friends and supporters will now push Mark in his wheelchair along the 13-mile course.
She said: "I kind of put it to the back of my mind thinking it wasn't going to happen. It was just after Christmas he turned to me and said 'I could do it in my wheelchair'. I told him I couldn't push him for the whole 13 miles so we had to get a team together if we were going to make this happen."
Felicity - along with friends Jamie and Kelly Mapp-Jones, Nick Tyson, Sam Tyson, Gareth Jones, Tim Guy, Rhys Parry, Andrew Mackie, Alex Stockton, Donna Welsh and Claire Williams - will carry out his wish. Most of the team have some form of link to Coleg Cambria, where the couple both work in managerial roles.
She added: "Most of us running have done the course before, some haven't. We've had one practice run so fingers crossed we can pull it off on the day.
"It's just an incredible team of people that all really want to do this for Mark. They've been such a support over the past few weeks and I'm actually a little worried what we'll do when its all over on Sunday."
The team have raised more than £4,200 for Mark's chosen cause, The Brain Tumour Charity. Donations can be made HERE.
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