A popular 31-year-old man has been told he has just months to live after he collapsed in Home Bargains. Luke Streeter had 20 seizures out of the blue while he was in the popular discount store with his mother Linda.
Luke has decided not to have treatment because the odds are low and he doesn't want to spend all the time he has left in hospital. His mum Linda said it was horrendous to be told by doctors "to go out and make memories"
The diagnosis comes four years after Luke was first diagnosed with a brain tumour in December 2018, which the family thought he had overcome after treatment. The fit and healthy and a regular gym goer had an operation the following March and after a lot of rehabilitation to relearn to walk and talk, was getting back on track.
There was a further set back the following year when doctors told him he had a grade two astrocytoma and he underwent six months of chemotherapy. But again, Luke was back in the gym and getting on with his life.
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In July 2022, Luke was walking with his mum when he started to feel unwell. Linda recalled: "We went into the local Home Bargains and he had 20 seizures out of the blue." Luke was rushed to hospital and ended up in a coma in intensive care. Over the next four months, Luke continued having seizures but it wasn't until November 25, 2022 that he had an operation to investigate the cause of his fits.
During his surgery Luke had yet another seizure and ended up back in a coma for two weeks. While there he caught pneumonia and a bowel infection. The results came back and he was told he had a progressive grade four cancer and the only way forward was chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Two weeks ago, doctors told Luke and Linda that without treatment he'd be dead within six months.
"It was horrendous," said Linda. "I thought my heart was broken when they told me he had a brain tumour four years ago. To be told by the surgeon to go away and make memories, I just can't describe how horrendous it is."
It was particularly hard because Luke was seemingly well again: “He’d been really starting to get back to some kind of normal life and getting back into his gym routine,” said Linda. “Then this curve ball arrived.”
Mother and son have a “tremendous bond” and Linda joked: “He should have been born a girl because we go shopping together and everything.”
The local community in Tondu has rallied around the mother and son and Linda said their support had been overwhelming. Especially from the staff at Home Bargains, who are now throwing everything into a fundraiser for Luke to help him make the most of the time he has left. They "absolutely love Luke to bits" and it just so happens the date of the fundraiser will fall on Luke's birthday.
The pair would like to travel to Rome together in April. But Luke’s illness might prevent him from flying and they may have to settle on a trip in the UK instead. Luke could suffer another seizure at any time and Linda has given up work to be Luke’s fulltime carer. She lives in constant fear.
"I can't change it," she said. "I would if I could. I'd do anything to take it away and have it myself but that's not realistic."
He can be affected by seizures at any time - night or day - and Luke wears a lanyard detailing who to call if he’s out and about. Linda added: "It just takes over your life just completely takes over your life."
Until Luke’s illness, Linda said devastating brain tumours were something that "happened to other people". She said: "When it happens to you you think it can't be right. When they told us in the hospital I said you've got his scan mixed up with someone else's because there's nothing wrong with him. It's very sad because it's a hidden illness and Luke looks okay. He looks fine but he's got this tumour growing in his head. It's a very cruel disease and it's very, very sad."
Luke and Linda have only lived in Tondu for three and a half years but said they’d been embraced by “a caring kind community”. “We wouldn't have had any of this where we lived before," Linda said. "Everybody here is just so lovely. And everybody knows Luke. The comments I've had on what a lovely boy he is and how proud I should be and how polite he is has been just humbling. It's really, really nice.”
Even so, there’s no respite for either of them and Luke is struggling. "He keeps popping out with things like I won't be here for Christmas and I say you are, you're going to fight," said Linda. "Because he has fought a hell of a fight for the last four years. And part of me thinks maybe they're wrong, maybe they've got it wrong, because you just want to think that don't you."
Luke sees a counsellor every week which gives him an opportunity to talk about what he's going through. "He doesn't like to see me cry and I try my hardest not to cry in front of him because it upsets him," Linda added. "So he can go and talk to them about things that he doesn't want to talk to me about."
Luke is now under the palliative care team at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend and Linda said the staff there had been amazing. But she said the support in general had been somewhat lacking.
"I think Luke could be an amazing ambassador for what he's dealt with and still going through and he's still got a smile on his face. It's incredible what he's had to deal with. But there just doesn't seem to anything out there for Luke and there doesn't seem to be anything for the carers either. There's not enough money put into brain tumour research. It's one of the least funded cancers."
There will be a charity night at the cricket club in Tondu on his birthday May 27, 7pm until 12pm, to raise money for the mother and son. The organisers are determined to make it a memorable night for Luke and are hoping people will donate raffle prizes and offer their DJ skills.
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