A man diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour is preparing to spend his last Christmas with his wife. After suffering from agonising symptoms for two years, Dan Potts was diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumour in December 2021.
At first medics thought the symptoms were caused by a pinched nerve. But then the tumour showed up on an MRI scan and the 46-year-old was given the devastating news his cancer is terminal.
Dan and his wife Liah, 26, are now preparing to spend their last Christmas together, after the pair spent it apart last year when Dan was in intensive care. Dan, from a hamlet near Loweswater in Cumbria, said: “We think this Christmas may be our last together, so we just want to have Christmas dinner and spend some quality time together.
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“We both love Christmas, but we were apart last year because I was in intensive care so Christmas was cancelled. It’s tough but we’re both facing this head-on and trying to be as positive as possible.”
Dan started getting headaches and weakness down the right-side of his body in December 2018. After an MRI scan at Princess Elizabeth Hospital in Guernsey, where he was living at the time, he was told a pinched nerve was causing the problems.
Six months later, the pain became ‘unbearable’ and Dan had another MRI scan - but was again told he had a pinched nerve. A third scan in December 2021 revealed the mass and Dan was given the devastating diagnosis.
Dan said: “I was told it was terminal and any treatment would just be to try to prolong my life because there was no cure. I was told this on an open hospital ward with no privacy, which was not very nice.
“I was crying; I just didn’t expect news like that. The average survival time is just 12-18 months which is devastating.”
Dan had a craniotomy at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee on 29 December 2021. The procedure went well but he now has epilepsy and is on four different types of anti-seizure medication.
He has undergone chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and has just finished a six-month course of a higher dose of chemotherapy.The pair have both stopped working because of Dan’s condition but previously ran private estates in Guernsey and Scotland.
Dan and Liah are now crowdfunding for Brain Tumour Research, Macmillan, and St John’s in Keswick, where Dan wants to be buried. Dan said: “It’s so important to raise as much money and awareness of brain tumours.
“There is such a lack of funding, and the treatment hasn’t changed in over 20 years. That has got to change.”
Matthew Price, community development manager at Brain Tumour Research said: “We are so sorry to hear of Dan’s diagnosis.
“We are really grateful to him and Liah for crowdfunding for us, as it’s only with the support of people like them that we’re able to progress our research into brain tumours and improve the outcome for patients like Dan who are forced to fight this awful disease.”
To donate to Dan's Just Giving page, click here.
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