George Wade was told he had a brain tumour the size of a tennis ball after experiencing symptoms like nausea and a headache which he had chalked up to a hangover
A marathon runner who thought he had a hangover after a day of drinking was shocked to find out that he was actually suffering from brain tumours.
George Wade, 42, started to experience symptoms after drinking at Cheltenham races in Gloucestershire with his friends in March last year. He began to feel sick when looking at car headlights and also suffered from a severe headache and memory loss – but chalked it up to a hangover.
The symptoms passed, until a month later when the left side of George’s body became weak and his face started drooping. Despite a number of tests all coming back clear, his wife insisted they call his brother-in-law, Dr Caspar Wood, who booked him in for a precautionary MRI scan.
George explained: “Ellie called Caspar who assumed it may be a stroke. The following day he arranged for me to have a blood and eye test which came back all clear and he assured me I was fine. He said just to be safe he would get me an MRI scan on April 18 which I went to he assured me again it was just precaution and they most likely wouldn’t find anything.”
However, George was told he had two brain tumours – a large one on the right side which was described as “the size of a tennis ball”, and a smaller one “the size of a squash ball” in the middle. He added: “I was later told the bigger one might have been growing for 20 years and only now it has gotten so big it was pushing my brain and causing symptoms.”
Getting the diagnosis “was a shock” and George, who had run 20 marathons over the past 15 years, said he felt “helpless”, adding: “I was thinking to myself ‘how do you survive with two brain tumours?’”
The auction software engineer has since been through an eight-hour debulking surgery and spent six months on chemotherapy pills. He now has to go for an MRI scan every three months to check for any growth and has had six surgeries on his skull and brain in the last 14 months.
George said he now feels “fitter and healthier” in many ways after what happened, explaining: “A nutritionist put me on a special diet, and I lost a lot of weight. My brother-in-law is a GP and said there is nothing wrong with your heart, so get running again.”
Earlier this year, he took on the London Marathon with an impressive time of 3 hours 16 minutes, and raised almost £50,000 for The Brain Tumour Charity and the National Brain Appeal in the process.
Now, George is looking to reach £100,000 by the end of this year with The Gavel Trail and Auction. He is leading it through the Bidpath Foundation, set up by his employers following his diagnosis, alongside international arts trail creators Wild In Art.
Auctioneers are sponsoring the fundraiser by commissioning an artist to design and decorate each one-metre long gavel and block. Throughout September and October, each auction house will display its gavel, creating an art trail.
Then, an auction will take place in the Surveyors House at RICS Westminster, London. Pre-bidding online is open.
George said: “I am looking forward to visiting many of the gavels at auction houses and I am particularly looking forward to visiting Halls auctioneers as they were the first auction house I worked for.”