Kelsey Parker, the widow of The Wanted singer Tom Parker, has urged for more funding into brain tumour research in the UK.
The actor, who lost her husband in March to stage four glioblastoma, said many families are “clutching at straws” as they travel abroad to seek alternative treatments.
Appearing on BBC Breakfast on Monday morning (31 October), Kelsey spoke of how the couple visited a clinic in Spain in a bid to prolong his life by exploring options outside chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Tom died on 30 March in a hospice near the couple’s home in southeast London. He had two young children with Kelsey before his death.
Kelsey said: “When we were in treatment I used to speak to people all the time - different families, children who have got brain tumours, other husbands, other wives - and it is just the same thing. Everyone has to go abroad.
“When you get diagnosed, because the standard of care hasn’t been changed in 30 years, you are literally clutching at straws and thinking, ‘What else can I actually do?’
“You have to go abroad. You have to seek other options because the standard of care is just radio and chemo and that is it.”
Giving an update on her family since Tom’s death, Kelsey said they were taking each day “as it comes”.
“We are just trying to live life best as we can without Tom. That’s it. That’s all I can do,” she told the show.
After hearing about another family going through a similar experience, Kelsey reflected on how some people travel abroad to look for other treatments.
She said: “There needs to be more done in this country. How can it be the biggest killer and get one per cent of funding? I just don’t understand it.”
David Jenkinson, from the Brain Tumour Charity, also appeared on the programme and called for better funding into research and treatments.
“We have seen with Covid but also with other cancers that when there is a sustainable amount of money put into research it leads to new treatments and new therapies,” he said.
However, Jenkinson warned that some treatments that have been offered overseas have not been proven effective, adding that while the charity “totally [understands] why people who are very desperate choose to travel”, some therapies have not been fully tested.
“Some of them are going through testing but they are not at a stage where the NHS would be able to prescribe them,” he said.
Parker wrote about his experience in being diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma and undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy in a book titled Hope.
He and Kelsey married in 2018 and had their daughter Aurelia Rose in 2019 and son Bodhi in 2020.
In July, Kelsey marked her fourth wedding anniversary and said things were “not getting easier” following her husband’s death.
She shared a post on Instagram on 14 July and wrote: “Never did I think this is how I’d be celebrating our four-year wedding anniversary Tom. Most people wish to have their wedding day again, I’d settle for a hug.”
