Marathon runner George Wade had a severe headache, memory loss, and also ‘felt sick’ when looking at car headlights
A marathon enthusiast was left stunned after discovering his supposed hangover symptoms were actually due to two brain tumours, one the size of a tennis ball. George Wade, 42, initially brushed off his discomfort following a lively day at Cheltenham races in Gloucestershire with mates last March.
However, during his journey back to Thirsk in North Yorkshire, he experienced intense headaches, memory issues, and nausea when exposed to car headlights. George, a seasoned runner with 20 marathons under his belt over 15 years, felt relief as the symptoms subsided, but in April, he faced what seemed like a stroke with weakness on his left side and a drooping face.
Despite various tests returning clear results, his brother-in-law, Dr Caspar Wood, arranged an MRI scan as a precaution, which revealed two brain tumours. The auction software engineer underwent an eight-hour debulking operation, followed by six months of chemotherapy tablets, and now requires tri-monthly MRI scans to monitor any tumour growth.
George is actively fundraising for charity by auctioning painted gavels via The Gavel Trail and Auction, an initiative he spearheads through the Bidpath Foundation. Reflecting on his diagnosis, George said: “When I was told my diagnosis, it was a shock, I honestly felt helpless and that I was done for. I was thinking to myself ‘how do you survive with two brain tumours?’.
“Last year was a conveyor belt of treatment. I suffered a bizarre psychosis as a side-effect of the steroids they put me on. It was like an out-of-body experience that was pretty frightening.”
After the headache and sickness upon returning from Cheltenham, George said his symptoms disappeared and he carried on as usual, even embarking on a skiing holiday to Austria two weeks later without any signs of illness.
However, on April 14, George experienced stroke-like symptoms after struggling to grasp a fork and dropping it on the floor, before his wife Ellie spotted the left side of his face sagging. George said: “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. It was just to rule it out basically.”
However, after completing the scan, George recalls witnessing the ‘body language’ of the medical staff shift and he was informed a consultant would be coming to speak with him. While waiting, George said he had come to terms with the possibility that he might have a brain tumour.
He said: “I was told I have two brain tumours – a large one on the right side of my head which was described as the size of a tennis ball and another smaller one the size of a squash ball in the middle.
“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.”
Initially, George was taken to Northallerton Hospital in North Yorkshire, where he received steroid medication aimed at shrinking the tumours. After a biopsy operation in early May, he was diagnosed with two grade 2 astrocytoma tumours. Astrocytomas are frequently occurring brain tumours that arise from cells known as astrocytes, as per Cancer Research UK.
Subsequently, in early June, George made his way to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, where he underwent an eight-hour debulking surgery that successfully removed 95 per cent of the larger tumour in his brain.
The smaller tumour was not operated on. Post-surgery, George was eager to recover, managing to walk just two days later and even going for his first jog within a month. Further tests revealed that his larger tumour had progressed to stage four – characterised by rapid growth and aggression – due to a mutation. However, at present, it is reportedly behaving like a stage two tumour, which grows more slowly.
A month after surgery, in July, George commenced a six-month course of chemotherapy in tablet form, concluding in December, which helped further diminish the size of his tumours. George said: “The chemotherapy pills were big doses for five days each month and then a rest.
“Luckily I wasn’t too ill with it until the last set of pills as the effects mount up month by month which is why I felt worse at the end. Though when I first starting taking them the skin on my hands starting peeling off which was a strange side effect.
“I feel so fortunate to be living in 2025, not 1980. The chemotherapy I underwent last year came in pill form, allowing me to take them at home, and I had anti-sickness tablets to accompany them, making things much easier than they would have been four decades ago.”
George has also endured three plastic surgeries on his skull to eradicate a skin infection detected in August following the debulking surgery. He has undergone six operations on his skull and brain in the past 14 months.
He also needs MRI scans every three months to monitor for growth. George stated: “I was lucky that I had an MRI scan as frustrating as it is that I have these brain tumours at least I know and we caught them when we did as it could have been a lot worse.
“In many ways I feel fitter and healthier than I have ever been after what’s happened. A nutritionist put me on a special diet, and I lost a lot of weight. My brother-in-law, who is a GP, said there is nothing wrong with your heart, so get running again.”
The runner has already raised nearly £50,000 for The Brain Tumour Charity and the National Brain Appeal by running the London Marathon in a personal best time of 3 hours and 16 minutes earlier this year.
He’s now pressing on with his fundraising efforts, aiming to hit a whopping £100,000 by year’s end through The Gavel Trail and Auction. He is spearheading the initiative via the Bidpath Foundation, established by George’s workplace post-diagnosis in collaboration with global arts trail innovator Wild In Art.
Auctioneers from all over Britain and beyond – many of whom are mates with George – are backing the cause by getting artists to spruce up a plain gavel and block. Each piece is a sizeable one metre in length.
Throughout September and October, each auction house will showcase its own gavel, setting up an artistic trail. The grand auction is set for the Surveyors House at RICS Westminster, London, with pre-bidding already available online.
George shared: “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.”
You can bid at https://bidpath.wildinartauctions.com/
