The mum of a Lanarkshire schoolboy who died from brain cancer has paid tribute to her 'happy and selfless' boy.
Fraser McAllister was diagnosed with an anaplastic glioneuronal tumour, a rare form of the cruel disease, in 2020. The tragic diagnosis came after the teenager first started getting headaches back in 2018 where he 'felt like his head was going to blow up'.
The 18-year-old spoke out earlier this year on a drug used to treat patients like him which can’t be accessed in the UK - he travelled to Paris for it. The late Hamilton College pupil also endured three surgeries; one where a drain was put into his head, another remove the tumour and a third to have a tracheostomy (incision in the windpipe) fitted.
Sadly Fraser passed away at his home in Waterfoot, East Renfrewshire, on July 10. He is remembered by his devastated mum, Caroline Molloy.
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The 58-year-old told Lanarkshire Live: “Fraser was a happy selfless boy who didn’t like to upset anyone. He thought of others before himself.
"That’s just the way Fraser was. He wanted to get on with everyone, and he would’ve been a hard worker."
Fraser's legacy, carried on by Caroline, is to raise the profile of the trial drug treatment he received, only available in the EU, called ONC201 in the hope it can help others.
The drug was 'difficult to find'. Fraser only started it in May and had to travel to Paris to access it. ONC201 is understood to have a high success rate but is not a cure for cancer.
It was able to alleviate some of his symptoms and due to the positive impact it had, Caroline wants to continue to raise its profile, just as Fraser did before his death, as well as raising awareness of his illness.
“Fraser wanted to highlight this drug, and I want to keep highlighting his story for him", she added.
“The drug was working with Fraser until he had the pseudomonas (bacterium which can lead to disease). But with Fraser’s condition, that infection can be quite fatal.
"He was in hospital for 18 days. The strong antibiotics he got to fight that was to kill all bacteria, which when I heard that, I thought ‘there goes the new drug’.
“Half of Fraser’s swallow had been taken away and he had to learn to walk again after his operation. He had had six doses of this new drug all in, and each week his symptoms would change.
"First of all it had helped his eyes, then the next he could feel his mouth. He fought so hard and he didn’t once complain, no matter what he went though.
"His brain tumour was at the back of his head and was a rare one, so nobody knew which way it was going to go. We were devastated."
Caroline added: “He had a scan on the Friday, July 8, and the only way to describe him was he was like a puppet with no strings or a voice, because when he had an infection he wasn’t allowed to wear a voice valve.
“He kept pushing himself. He wanted to improve his mobility but on the Friday he was exhausted."
Whilst receiving treatment earlier this year, Fraser told his oncologist that he actually felt guilty for being in receipt of the drug as he knew other people needed it. Unfortunately, Fraser's tumour later spread to the brain stem as a scan days before his death revealed.
Caroline said: “His cancer was explained to me like a spider’s web, it just keeps growing until it suffocates. But with Fraser being young he could cope with it but his brain couldn’t.
“After the scan on the Friday we asked how long he had and they told us it could’ve been a few weeks or a few days. But I still never thought he would’ve passed on the Sunday.
"He always wanted a platform to raise his story to make people aware", Caroline added.
In June, a charity football match was held by Fraser's classmates, raising more than £6000 for the Beatson Cancer Charity. And since then, some of his friends have launched their own fundraisers in his memory.
Fraser said earlier this year: "In early 2018, I noticed I was dizzy, but only when I looked up. There was no real explanation given, and it was put down to my age.
"In August 2019 I started to be sick intermittently, only in the morning, and also have stomach pains only in the morning."
Doctors were unable to find anything wrong for some time and when the first lockdown hit in 2020, Fraser's headaches started once again, his symptoms escalated and was in a lot of pain.
He added: "I had severe pressure in my head that didn't ease and I also nearly fell in the house. My head felt like it was going to blow up, my mobility was reduced and we headed to hospital."
After being taken for an MRI which revealed the tumour, Fraser said: "The following day my world fell apart."
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