David Philips, 41, had intermittent headaches and hallucinations and was later diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour after a CT scan and an MRI after a trip to A&E
A dad who hallucinated seeing bubbles on the floor was later diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour and given just a year to live.
David Phillips, 41, started suffering from intermittent headaches and thought the floor had “bubbled” up while at work. His wife, Kirby Phillips, 38, fought for David to get a doctor’s appointment and he was sent to the emergency medical unit at the University Hospital Wales.
After a CT scan and an MRI, the dad-of-two was diagnosed with a grade 4 glioblastoma – and told he would need chemotherapy, radiotherapy and brain surgery whilst awake. Kirby told BristolPost: “Whilst David was at work, he began to see bubbles in the linoleum flooring.
“He said it looked like the floor bubbled a bit. However, when he pressed on them nothing was there and after touching what he believed to be bubbles he felt a weakness in his hand and arm. When we got the diagnosis and prognosis we weren’t going to accept what we’d been told. We’ve got to keep trying and trying. We won’t stop and give up.” Time stopped and it was very fuzzy. We knew he wasn’t well but you never expect something like that is going to be the problem. We were just heartbroken.”
Whilst this was going on, David and I were just not going to accept that that is it. We have a young family and we just did not want to give up and accept that that is it. One of the first things he said was ‘I want to marry you’. It was something happy and lovely to focus on. It was a lovely distraction.”
An MRI scan confirmed his diagnosis and two weeks after he initially started experiencing symptoms, David was told he had a grade 4 glioblastoma on August 21, 2024. The doctors gave David a prognosis of 12 to 14 months with treatment and only three months without.
He was told he would need an awake craniotomy – to remove as much of the tumour as they could – followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. David underwent six weeks of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to extend his life. He is now undergoing a private treatment called modulated electro-hyperthermia – which uses heat to destroy cancerous cells – costing the family £3,000-a-month.
They are now fundraising to fund the treatment – and have received over £13,000 from strangers. David has also been accepted onto an NHS clinical trial and will have another operation to remove as much of the tumour as possible before implanting a small medical device.
Kirby added: “David and I have never asked anyone for anything, we are very independent people. We work hard and pride ourselves on doing things ourselves. We can’t believe everybody’s kindness and generosity.
“It is a testament to how much people think of David and want him to get better. I am completely blown away. If someone gets some sort of help from the awareness – if they are experiencing those symptoms that they’ll do something about it.”