A woman had her partner's baby two years after he died.
Lauren McGregor, who lives near Hale Village, said her husband Chris began having random hot flushes. When he visited his GP, they told him it was the early signs of flu and he was sent home from work.
However, Lauren said Chris "couldn't think what her name was" and she knew at this point something was not right.
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She said: “Chris phoned me from work. The reception was bad, and we got cut off. We had always agreed he would be the one to call back if that ever happened, but he didn’t call. He called a bit later to tell me he was being sent home.
"He told me he hadn’t called me back earlier, because he couldn’t think what my name was. I drove him to hospital, but the nurses weren’t too worried about him and said he should continue with his flu medication, but I was begging them to scan his head.
"I just had a gut feeling that something wasn’t right.”
A CT scan revealed a tumour and at age 37, he was diagnosed with astrocytoma - a common type of brain tumour in both adults and children, in December 2013. Lauren said she was in shock when she Googled the condition and found the average lifespan was 10 years.
Chris was put on steroids to reduce swelling around his brain, and he was given anti-seizure medication because they thought he may have epilepsy. In March 2014, surgeons at the Walton Centre in Liverpool removed 95% of the tumour during an awake craniotomy.
In January 2017, Chris, who is also dad to Wade, 19, started six weeks of radiotherapy and six months of chemotherapy after a scan showed the tumour had grown. Because the treatment was likely to affect Chris’ fertility, he banked his sperm.
Chris and Lauren “went back to living a normal life” until November 2019 when Chris said he felt pressure in his head again.
Lauren said: “He said it felt like his skull was going to split open. We went to A&E at Whiston Hospital where an MRI scan found the tumour was growing. It also revealed a secondary tumour on the other side of his brain.
"We had gone back to normal life and doing normal things and we’d learnt not to let Chris’ prognosis take over our lives. We thought we had got the tumour under control, so this hit him quite hard.
“We decided to try alternative therapies; Chris went on the alkaline diet, and he also started taking THC cannabis oil. At £900 a month, it was very expensive, but it was worth it. A check-up scan in March 2020 showed the second tumour had vanished, so we stopped the therapies.
"Six weeks after the good news, I noticed Chris was acting a bit strange and he kept forgetting where he’d put things in the house. He had a scan which showed the original tumour had completely spread across the middle of Chris’ brain. They showed me the scan; it was just devastating to see what it had done to his brain.”
On July 19, 2020, Chris died in hospital with his loving wife by his side. A year after Chris' death Lauren began IVF using Chris’ frozen sperm and she discovered she was pregnant on September 12.
She welcomed hers and Chris' baby, who she named Seb, on May 17, 2022. Lauren documented her journey on Instagram and now uses the page to answer questions and provide support to other widows who are going through a similar journey.
Writing on one of her posts, Lauren shared a number of pictures of Seb a few weeks after his birth and said: "I didn't think it was possible to love another male as much as I loved Chris....welcome....Seb. My life feels somewhat meaningful again, with a future that I will continue to always have Chris in."
Lauren is now campaigning alongside the charity Brain Tumour Research to help reach 100,000 signatures on its petition to increase research funding, in the hope of prompting a parliamentary debate.
The 35-year-old said: "Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, but the Government gives so little to research the disease. We’ve got a massive killer, but the Government doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t seem fair.”
The charity is calling on the government to ring-fence £110m of current and new funding to kick-start an increase in the national investment in brain tumour research to £35 million a year by 2028. Brain Tumour Research wants the Government to recognise brain tumour research as a critical priority.
It said the increase in research investment would put brain tumours in line with the spend on cancers of breast, bowel and lung, as well as leukaemia.
Lauren added: “I’ve signed the petition and encourage others to as well because money is so important; without it, there is no research. The Government needs to invest much more into brain tumours because so much is still unknown about them.
"It is so frustrating; if there are other treatments, they should be on the NHS. Something must be done to improve the situation.”
Matthew Price, community development manager at Brain Tumour Research, said: “We are so grateful to Lauren for supporting our petition and helping to raise awareness.
For too long governments have put brain tumours on the ‘too difficult to think about’ pile. Five years after the Government announced £40 million for brain cancer research, just £15m has been spent. Patients and families continue to be let down by a funding system that is built in silos and not fit for purpose.
“If everyone can spare just a few minutes to sign and share, we will soon hit the 100,000 signatures we need and help find a cure, bringing hope to families whose loved ones have been affected by brain tumours.”
To sign and share the petition before it closes at the end of October 2023, click here.
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